NS&I expected to repay millions to customers and bereaved families

26th Mar 2026 11:35

(Sharecast News) - National Savings and Investments is reportedly readying to pay hundreds of millions of pounds to customers and bereaves families after mismanaging premium bonds accounts.

Pensions minister Torsten Bell is expected to address the House of Commons on Thursday about how the government-backed savings agency will deal with the 37,000 customer accounts that are thought to be affected.

The complaints vary from people being unable to access their relatives' savings - for months, or even years - to the agency losing track of investments, withholding payments or failing to pay premium bond prizes to families of deceased customers.

According to the BBC, NS&I will be repaying entitled customers and families their money, rather than compensating people for the errors.

A scathing parliamentary report released in February found that NS&I had launched a "high-risk" digital transformation programme in 2020 aimed at modernising operations and cutting costs, but the agency "did not have the skills to deliver such a programme".

The report accused the agency of a "good-news culture and weak risk management", as well as having a lack of skills and expertise, which made it slow to act on advice given by other governmental organisations and consultants.

HM Treasury, which NS&I reports to, was also slow to act on the programme's weaknesses, the report said.

In a statement on Wednesday, NS&I said: "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."