The Department for Work and Pensions wasted millions of pounds due to delayed death notifications and administrative errors, according to an investigation
Britain’s welfare department has paid out £850 million (over $1.1 billion) in benefits to dead people over the past four years in a massive government blunder, The Telegraph has reported.
Since 2021, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) made approximately 2.6 million erroneous payments to deceased claimants, the newspaper found. The errors reportedly stemmed from death notifications arriving too late to stop automated payouts, or being processed just as a payment was about to be sent.
Official figures show that total benefit overpayments in 2025 alone reached £9.5 billion ($12.6 billion), with the vast majority being due to fraud or claimant mistakes. The newly revealed £850 million figure represents official administrative error related specifically to deceased recipients. Less than half of that sum has been recovered, adding to the UK’s spiraling welfare bill, which already sets British taxpayers back roughly £300 billion ($398 billion) each year.
The Telegraph noted that the cost of recovering the money in some cases may exceed the amount overpaid, which typically runs to just a few hundred pounds per claim. The DWP has said it will only pursue recovery when it is “reasonable and cost effective.”
The scandal has sparked sharp criticism from opposition politicians and taxpayer advocates. Lee Anderson, work and pensions spokesman for Reform UK, called it “an absolutely appalling scandal” that proves that both Labour and the Conservatives “cannot be trusted with the public’s money.” Shimeon Lee of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said the figures show a department that “has lost its grip on basic administration.”
A DWP spokesman defended the department, noting that a ‘Tell us Once’ service exists to notify government agencies of a death in one step and ensure benefits only go to those entitled to them.
The revelations come amid broader criticism of Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Labour government’s welfare policies and spending on other fronts such as accommodating boat migrants. The UK is set to spend a staggering £2.1 billion on housing and welfare for asylum seekers this financial year while the cost of placing such individuals in hotels has reached £5.5 million per day.
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