Treasury-backed savings giant NS&I will start contacting the estates of deceased customers next week as it prepares to pay out hundreds of millions of pounds after failures meant that bereaved families were missing out on savings pots.
The savings and Premium Bonds provider, which describes itself as the UK government savings bank, will contact all affected estates with holdings of £10 or more to reunite them with the full value of funds that should have been returned to them earlier.
In March, NS&I estimated that around 37,500 bereavement claims with a total value of £476 million may have been affected.
On Tuesday it said that as the review has progressed, this number has reduced and is likely to reduce further.
NS&I’s current assessment is that up to 34,000 estates with a total value of around £367 million have been affected.
There is nothing that families, beneficiaries or the personal representatives and executors of deceased estates need to do, NS&I said, as it will contact the personal representatives and executors of estates with holdings of £10 or more directly.
Payments to affected estates will run over the coming months and are expected to conclude in the first half of 2027.
NS&I offers a range of savings and investments to more than 24 million customers, including more than 22 million Premium Bonds holders.
As it is backed by the Treasury, money held with it has 100% security.
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NS&I notified the Treasury in December of an operational failure to trace accounts comprehensively of some customers who had died.
In March, it emerged that NS&I chief executive Dax Harkins was being replaced by former HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) boss Sir Jim Harra, in what pensions minister Torsten Bell described as a “fresh start”.
Sir Jim, interim chief executive, NS&I, said on Tuesday: “I apologise to everyone who has been affected by this issue. Beginning the process of repaying these funds is a key step in putting things right.
“We need to ensure that everybody who makes a bereavement claim with NS&I is treated sympathetically and has their case processed as quickly as possible.
“Today, this process is taking longer than it should. We have brought in additional staff to get the service back on track.”
NS&I, which holds more than £240 billion in customer deposits, said the error happened because the search process used when handling a bereavement claim failed to identify all NS&I products.
It said the issue has been resolved for current and new bereavement claims and a new more robust process was introduced in January 2026.
NS&I also said that the new process takes longer than before and has resulted in delays for current and new claims.
It apologised to those affected by these delays and said it has brought in 100 extra staff to support this work and ensure it returns to processing bereavement claims within usual service standards by autumn 2026.
