National Savings and Investments is poised to pay compensation to savers after a series of blunders at the state-backed bank.
NS&I has been accused of short-changing bereaved families by losing track of investments, delaying payouts and withholding premium bond prizes.
Today, pensions minister Torsten Bell is expected to address the matter in a statement to MPs in the House of Commons, amid fears the taxpayer will have to pick up the bill for compensation.
Some customers, including the bereaved, were reportedly forced to turn to lawyers to help recover the money they were owed by NS&I, incurring additional costs.
Pensions minister Torsten Bell will address the NS&I matter in a statement to MPs
The Treasury is understood to be working with NS&I to establish the precise sum of compensation for affected customers.
This week, NS&I apologised to customers suffering a bereavement who had not received the customer service they expected.
A spokesperson for NS&I said on Wednesday: ‘We recognise that dealing with bereavement can be challenging and would like to apologise to anyone who has not received the customer service from NS&I that they should expect, particularly at such a sensitive time.’
Zoe Gillespie, investment manager at RBC Brewin Dolphin, told the BBC’s Today programme: ‘The NS&I is currently working through a £3billion modernisation programme which is years behind, so there appears to be some issues with potential tech or customer service problems.’
NS&I needed to ‘get on the front foot’ to restore investor and savers’ confidence, Gillespie added.
Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: ‘Hard-working taxpayers could be asked to pick up the bill for what appears to be a staggering failure of oversight.’
He added: ‘Serious questions must be answered, and fast, about who knew what and when.’
In February, NS&I was accused by a committee of MPs of being ‘bullishly confident’ over a £3billion digital transformation project.
The Public Accounts Committee said it was not confident the scheme, designed to modernise NS&I’s operations and measurably reduce its running costs, could be successfully delivered.
The state-backed bank was found by the MPs to have no workable plan and claimed the bank lacked the skills to deliver it.
NS&I offers a range of savings and investments to more than 24million customers, including over 22million Premium Bonds holders.
Every month, more than a million Premium Bonds winners are chosen at random and two bond holders pocket £1million each. Other prizes range from £25 to £100,000.
Have you been affected by NS&I blunders or had money go missing? Email [email protected]
