The NHS Pension Scheme has made overpayments of almost £100m since 2012, Minister for Health Philip Dunne has revealed.

In total there has been 123,211 overpayments since 2012, however, the number of these as a result of clerical error is just 72, information provided by Dunne on Parliamentary Written Answers and Questions said.

Most recently, there was overpayments of £19.7m in 2016/17, the second highest amount for the last five years. The highest amount was overpaid in 2014/15 when £20.3m was paid out.

Dunne, who was responding to question posed by MP for Easington Grahame Morris, said: “In a majority of cases an overpayment arises from changes in scheme member circumstances after the initial pension has been awarded. These are generally beyond the control of the scheme administrator, with subsequent revision to pension benefits often resulting in an overpayment.”

He said that the NHS Business Services Authority, which administers the scheme, is improving its quality assurance processes and investing in additional staff training to reduce the risk of errors leading to overpayments by the scheme.

“Progress in their quality assurance process improvements is overseen by the NHS Pension Board, a statutory board set up under the Public Service Pensions Act 2013 and responsible for overseeing scheme governance and administration, by the Department through Service Level Agreement reviews with the Authority and by the Pension Regulator through its annual survey of pension scheme governance,” he said.

He added that the NHS Pension Board works with The Pensions Regulator to ensure adequate accountability for errors made within the scheme by monitoring the performance of the scheme administrator, the NHS Business Services Authority.

Furthermore, Dunne said that when it comes to the decision of writing off pension overpayments, the NHS Business Services Authority is required to act in accordance with the document entitled Managing Public Money, issued by the Treasury.

He noted that paragraph A4.11.2 states that in principle “public sector organisations should always pursue recovery of overpayments, irrespective of how they came to be made”. However, the paragraph notes that there are practical and legal limits to how cases should be handed, therefore, each case should be dealt with on its merits.

As a result, factors such as the nature and complexity of the overpayment, value, length of time passed, legal defence, and potential for hardship are all taken into account.

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