NS&I To Pay £476m in Compensation – Are you Owed Money?

Over 37,000 people could receive part of £476m in compensation from National Savings and Investments (NS&I) due to a major system fault.

Bereaved families were unable to receive funds that they claim were rightfully theirs due to administrative errors.

Originally set up in 1861 as the Post Office Savings Bank, NS&I is a government-backed financial provider with more than 24 million customers.

That includes more than 22 million Premium Bond holders who are entered into a monthly prize draw.

Pensions minister, Torsten Bell, confirmed that 37,500 customers were affected by the fault following an investigation.

Dax Harkins resigned as chief executive of NS&I following the announcement and has been replaced by former HMRC boss Sir Jim Harra.

How did the error happen?

NS&I revealed that the errors happened when the estates of deceased customers were not always repaid from all of their accounts after a bereavement claim.

The issue has now been resolved and NS&I issued the following apology to those affected:

“NS&I apologises and is extremely sorry for these errors. It is working hard to ensure everybody affected is paid what is owed to them.

“Families, beneficiaries and deceased customers’ estates do not need to take any immediate action.

“NS&I will contact estates that are affected and will publish further information for the beneficiaries of those estates in due course.”

How do you claim compensation?
NS&I said it will ensure that “customers’ estates are appropriately compensated.”

Although work to identify those affected is still ongoing, anyone due compensation will be contacted directly.

NS&I must publish a delivery plan in May on how it will process the compensation fund and ensure savers are reunited with their money along with interest.

Approximately 37,500 savers will be repaid a share of around £476 million in compensation which works out to £12,693 on average per person.