This has been circulated by the DWP but is unlikely to appear in the press
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esa-underpayments-progress-on-checking-january-2020/january-2020-esa-underpayments-forecast-numbers-affected-forecast-expenditure-and-progress-on-checkingOfficial Statistics
January 2020: ESA underpayments: Forecast numbers affected, forecast expenditure and progress on checking
Published 16 January 2020
Policy background and introduction
1. Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) was introduced in October 2008 for people who have limited capability to work because they are disabled or ill. From March 2011 the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) began reassessing people on incapacity benefits (for example, Incapacity Benefit and Severe Disablement Allowance) for eligibility for ESA.
2. More than 2 million claimants were receiving incapacity benefits before reassessment began and we have now reassessed around 1.5 million people, nearly all of those who required a reassessment.
3. The department is correcting some past underpayments of ESA, which arose while reassessing incapacity benefit claims.
This Table gives details on the amount of underpayments to people still living
Table 1: Progress on checking cases potentially affected by underpayments of ESA on conversion from previous incapacity benefits
Out of the 600,000 cases to be checked: 12 January 2020 13 October 2019
Number of cases that have started the reassessment journey (see note 6) 600,000 570,000
Number of cases the department has contacted to gather data to review their claims (see note 7) 520,000 490,000
Number of cases that have completed the reassessment journey (see note 8) 581,000 510,000
Number of cases completed the reassessment journey without payment of arrears (see note 9) 468,000 410,000
Number of cases qualifying for arrears payments 112,000 100,000
Total amount of historical arrears paid to date £589 million £552 million
Average arrears payment to date £5,000 £6,000
sorry if the table is squint but I wanted to show the historical arrears paid to date £552 million >yikes<