The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) paid out £170 million to dead pensioners last year, the highest figure on record, with almost half of the payments still unrecovered.
The DWP has written off £16.5 million of the debt from last year and is attempting to recover £67 million. This includes state pension and pension credit payments.
Pension payments can sometimes be sent after death if there is a gap between someone dying and the family registering the death and notifying the DWP.
Five-year total and write-offs
According to the Telegraph, £673 million has been paid to dead pensioners in the past five years, but only £348 million has been recovered. Almost £240 million has been written off during this period.
The DWP writes off debts if the cost of pursuing it exceeds how much money is owed. This means some overpayments, usually small amounts, can get written off.
Recovery rules and family liability
The DWP treats pension overpayments that occur after someone has died as a debt of their estate, though it has no legal powers to force family to repay the money.
Family and next of kin are not normally liable to pay out of their own pockets unless they have committed fraud, deliberately failed to report a death, or gave misleading information. However, the DWP does have legal powers to recover overpayments that occurred while the person was still alive.
A DWP spokesperson said: "It is DWP policy to recover all debt where it is reasonable and cost effective to do so."
"We encourage anyone who has recently lost a loved one to use our Tell us Once service, which makes it easy to notify us and other government services of a death in one simple step. Once we've been notified, we act quickly to update our records and make sure benefits only go to those who are entitled to them."
