NS&I to pay millions owed to bereaved families

Bereaved families could be in line for thousand of pounds of compensation from National Savings & Investments (NS&I) after the government-backed bank admitted failing to trace accounts of dead customers.

A “catastrophic operations failure”, said The Telegraph, meant money belonging to 37,500 dead savers has been withheld from their families.

NS&I has said claims with a total value of up to £476 million in customer deposits “may have been affected”.

The savings organisation’s chief executive Dax Harkins has stepped down following the scandal, and has been replaced by former HMRC boss Jim Harra.

What has gone wrong at NS&I?

NS&I has been accused of “short-changing bereaved families” after losing track of investments, delaying payouts, and withholding prizes for its popular Premium Bonds, said ThisIsMoney.

Some families, said The Guardian, had resorted to paying lawyers to “recover their money”. NS&I has apologised and said its search process “failed to identify” all products when handling bereavement claims, which it said has now been fixed.

It’s not the first bit of “negative publicity” for NS&I, said Sky News, after the bank’s £3 billion digital transformation project was criticised by MPs for exposing “the taxpayer to additional risk”.

Who is affected by the missing payments?

Pensions minister Torsten Bell told MPs that around three-quarters of the cases relate to the period between 2008 and 2025.

NS&I has said up to 37,500 bereavement claims may have been affected, adding that it received 211,800 new bereavement claims and repaid £4 billion last year.

How much are people owed from NS&I?

The cases cover accounts worth an estimated £476 million, according to NS&I, which “works out at roughly £12,693 on average per person”, said ThisIsMoney.

The government has indicated families should have their funds returned, including interest and compensation.

How can bereaved families claim?

The government has confirmed “impacted customers” will be remunerated, said Metro, but “exact details” haven’t been announced yet.

NS&I has confirmed it will ensure savers’ estates are “appropriately compensated” and will reveal more details in May. It has also hired 100 more staff members to contact those affected.

You “don’t need to do anything” if you have recently made a claim or have an ongoing one, said NS&I, as it will be responsible for contacting beneficiaries.

This also means those affected won’t need to use a claims management company or solicitor, said MoneyWeek, “to be reunited with their money”.

The “silver lining”, said The Guardian, is that the money is 100% safe as NS&I is government-backed. So the main issue is “marrying it up with the owner, not the security of funds”.