Thousands of Universal Credit claimants eligible for backpayments | Personal Finance | Finance [Video]

Thousands of people are due back payments on Universal Credit due to a massive error by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

The problem was identified by the former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb and the DWP has admitted getting its figures wrong.

Workers – many with young families – who receive Universal Credit and are also paying into a pension could be in line for increases in their monthly payments, plus arrears.

The problem occurred because calculations on how much workers were eligible to receive in Universal Credit were based on their income before taking into account the impact of pension contributions.

Their incomes were lower after pension contributions and therefore they are entitled to higher benefits payments than were paid by the DWP.

It has emerged that many people were wrongly told by DWPstaff that they were not entitled to higher Universal Credit payments because pension …