A retired teacher has had her pension payments stopped four times because her pension provider repeatedly refuses to accept that she is not dead.
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.
“In November I had received two letters from Teachers’ Pensions asking me euphemistically if I was dead,” she said. “I immediately called to make it clear that I was very much alive. Nevertheless, a week later two more letters arrived asking the same thing, so I wrote back to reiterate that I had still not died.”
Four days before Christmas, McGrath discovered that her pension had not been paid. Despite a further call to Teachers’ Pensions the widow’s pension payment she also receives from the scheme was also stopped. Both payments were eventually made on 2 January after she complained.
McGrath said that she has been repeatedly asked to prove her existence since 2020 and faces losing her income each time. During the second lockdown she was staying at her son’s house and missed letters checking her circumstances. She only discovered there was a problem when her pension was not paid.
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. However, letters make no mention of a deadline or the fact that their payments will cease if they do not respond within 28 days. A spokesperson said this was “to avoid causing upset”.
McGrath said: “After I complained, my pension was reinstated but there was no apology. The General Register Office lists the full name and the year of birth of deceased people. It is virtually impossible that there are any other retired teachers with my name and birth date who are dying year on year.”
She said the letters did not make clear that pensioners should get in touch if their circumstances had not changed.
“Do they really think that it would be more distressing to be warned that you might lose your pension if you don’t reply within 28 days, than to have payments stopped without notice?” she said. “This is Alice in Wonderland territory.”
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.
“While it is right and proper for pension schemes to make sure they are not paying out pensions to people who have died, there should be a high level of certainty that someone has died before pensions are stopped,” he said. “Rich data sources are available to help cross-check for accuracy if there is a possibility that a scheme member has died, and should be a built-in part of the process. Where someone has verified that they are still alive, they should then be treated the same as any other member and not subject to unnecessary additional checks, year after year.”
After the Guardian queried the process, the DfE said it would make an exception and decouple McGrath’s name from the deceased’s so that she would not be contacted about it again.
“Fortunately, I have enough money in my savings account to weather these incidents but I am sure that’s not the case for everyone,” McGrath said. “Besides which, it’s unpleasant and distressing to be told periodically that they think you are dead.”
