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Retired teacher's pension stopped as provider refuses to believe she is not dead
(www.theguardian.com)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Eileen McGrath, 85, was left without income over Christmas when Teachers’ Pensions, which administers payments on behalf of the UK government, wrongly matched her with a deceased stranger.
She had fallen victim to a vetting procedure that regularly checks pension beneficiaries against the death register to prevent ineligible payments.
According to the Department for Education (DfE), which oversees Teachers’ Pensions, death register entries may be matched to scheme members even if personal details differ.
The DfE told the Guardian that once a possible match has been identified, the beneficiary may be asked to confirm that they are not the same deceased stranger every 12 months since the system, administered by Capita, does not log a disproved link.
Letters sent to pensioners after a match state that a new process provides updates from the General Register Office on changes of personal circumstances and asks the recipient to get in touch.
According to Steve Webb, a partner at the pension consultants LCP, providers would be expected to filter and investigate inexact matches on the death register before contacting a beneficiary, and payments should never be suspended without specific warnings.
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