Civil servants in the United Kingdom made payments totaling approximately £170 million last year to pensioners who had already died, marking a record sum in what government officials describe as a persistent benefits administration issue. This figure includes state pension and pension credit disbursements, nearly half of which remain unrecovered.

According to data obtained through freedom of information requests, over the past five years, around £673 million has been paid mistakenly to deceased pensioners. Of that amount, just over half—approximately £348 million—has been reclaimed, while roughly £240 million has been written off as irrecoverable. In the 2025-26 fiscal year alone, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has formally written off £16.5 million of the outstanding debt, and is actively attempting to recover £67 million.

Officials cite several factors contributing to these overpayments, including delays in registering deaths with the DWP. In the UK, deaths are required to be reported within five days in England and Wales, and within eight days in Scotland, though payments often continue after those dates due to processing lags. The department has no legal authority to compel grieving families to return the funds, so recovery efforts rely largely on requests and voluntary repayments. When the cost of pursuing these overpayments exceeds potential returns, the debts are written off.

Shimeon Lee, a policy analyst with the TaxPayers’ Alliance, criticized the scale of unrecovered payments, stating that such losses reveal significant weaknesses in the pension system despite representing a small fraction of the overall pension budget. By contrast, ministers have emphasized that unrecovered sums amount to roughly 0.1 percent of the annual £150 billion pension expenditure.

Former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb, now of LCP, explained the challenges faced by the department. He noted that delays between a pensioner’s death and family notification create gaps during which payments might continue erroneously. Webb highlighted that enforcing repayments on recently bereaved families could cause distress and that there is no legal mechanism to mandate reimbursement in most cases. He also warned that as pension rates rise and the number of pensioners increases, the total amount paid to deceased individuals each year is likely to grow.

In situations where deaths are not reported promptly or false information is provided, the DWP categorizes payments as formal overpayments recoverable by law and may treat these as cases of fraud or claimant error.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson urged individuals who have recently lost a loved one to use the government’s “Tell Us Once” service, which facilitates notifying multiple agencies of a death through a single notification, aiming to reduce administrative delays and overpayments. They reaffirmed that the department seeks to recover all debts where it is reasonable and cost-effective to do so.