The government has finally repaid 5,000 chronically ill and disabled benefit claimants who were left thousands of pounds out of pocket due to an error - after they died.
Welfare chiefs admitted today that thousands had to wait until after death to be refunded Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) in a blunder dating back almost decade.
Labour branded the figures a "national scandal".
An error meant thousands of claimants were awarded too little ESA - worth up to £111.65 a week - when they moved over from old-style incapacity benefit since 2011, reports the Mirror.
For two years, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been working through 600,000 cases to check who was short-changed.
Official figures now show 112,000 people were repaid an average of £5,000 each - totalling £589m in refunds.
But 5,000 of those people have already died. The money, totalling £16m or £3,000 a head, is expected to go to their next of kin.
Shadow Minister for Disabled People Marsha De Cordova said: "It is a national scandal that almost a decade of delay has meant 5,000 ill and disabled people have died before receiving the money that they are owed from ESA underpayments."
When the massive review first launched, DWP officials estimated 210,000 people would get refunds worth a combined £920m.
But chiefs later admitted the number of refunds would be "lower than forecast" after actual data replaced what were only estimates.
The DWP said 98% of cases have now been processed as of January 12.
The mammoth exercise happened in two phases.
Phase One dealt with 320,000 potential cases which post-date 21 October 2014. Phase Two dealt with a further 250,000 potential cases which dated back to 2011, and are expected to be complete by the end of December 2019.
