UK pensioners enjoy DSS windfall

UK pensioners are this week being flooded with money as the Department of Social Security (DSS) makes up for computer errors made seven months ago.

One pensioner, who retired in March this year, commented: "I had twelve weeks on a level which was too low, and another 12 weeks on something else. It was only yesterday that they sorted it out and sent me a large amount of money."

The DSS began its compensation drive in June, and is now working at maximum capacity. But officials say that of the 350,000 people who had their weekly benefits miscalculated, 70,000 pensioners are still awaiting back-payments.

The database responsible, National Insurance Recording System (NIRS-2), is now in the hands of the Inland Revenue. A spokeswoman told Silicon.com: "The majority of IT problems at the beginning of the year have now been dealt with - and cases have been passed to the DSS for payments. Only a few complicated cases remain."

Arthur Andersen's system was launched to cope with the growing ranks of UK pensioners, but it could not handle the volume of National Insurance numbers transferred onto it. A DSS spokeswoman said: "Everyone was given something as an interim emergency payment, but the amounts were possibly inaccurate, seeing as all their details were stored on the computer."

The DSS, Inland Revenue and Arthur Andersen are still working on resolving the problems.

The pensioner commented: "It seems that installing these new computer systems makes it harder for them to do their jobs, not easier."