Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what were the customer satisfaction ratings for the PensionWise service for each year since the service began; and what are the figures for the past four quarters.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
The below data on customer satisfaction is collected post-appointment.
Year | Customer Satisfaction |
2016/17 | 94% |
2017/18 | 92% |
2018/19 | 93% |
2019/20 | 94% |
Prior to the formation of the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) in 2019, satisfaction data was taken from the Pension Wise annual service evaluation and was not published quarterly. During this time The Money Advice Service, The Pensions Advisory Service, and Pension Wise had in place their own Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), along with different approaches to measuring performance. MaPS wanted to have a single programme measuring performance of their three service areas in a more consistent and joined up way. During 2020/21, there was no Pension Wise evaluation because MaPS were setting in place a new evaluation programme to achieve this.
Satisfaction data from 2021/22 is published quarterly by financial year on the MoneyHelper pensions take up dashboard. Pension Wise satisfaction scores for telephone appointments are provided quarterly by calendar year below – Q4 data is not yet available.
Quarter | Customer Satisfaction | |
2021/22 Q1 | 93.2% | |
2021/22 Q2 | 93.9% | |
2021/22 Q3 | 93.5% |
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what new measures they have put in place, or plan to introduce, to ensure elderly pensioners who are facing sharply rising fuel bills are able to afford to keep their homes sufficiently warm this winter.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
The Social Security (Up-rating of Benefits) Act 2021 introduced a double lock and allowed the Government to increase pensions by the higher of inflation or 2.5 per cent. From April 2022 state pensions will be increased by 3.1 per cent and this represents an additional £4bn spend on pensioner benefits in 2022/23. It should also be remembered that last year when earnings were negative this would have resulted in pensions being frozen, despite CPI being 0.5 per cent pensioners in receipt of state pension saw an increase of 2.5 per cent.
Pension Credit also provides invaluable financial support for vulnerable pensioners. Around 1.4 million eligible pensioners across Great Britain receive some £5bn in Pension Credit, which tops up their retirement income and is a passport to other financial help such as support with housing costs, council tax, heating bills and a free TV licence for those over 75.
Local Authorities in England have discretion to design their own bespoke local schemes within the overall parameters of the Household Support Fund, with support primarily focused on food, energy & water bills and wider essentials. Up to 50 per cent of the Fund is available for councils to spend on households without children, including those of State Pension age.
Other support for pensioners includes Winter Fuel Payments which continue to be payable to customers of State Pension age. We pay £200 to households with a customer aged between 66 and 79 and £300 to a household with someone aged 80 or over. We pay over 11 million winter fuel payments annually at a cost of £2bn which is a significant contribution to winter fuel bills.
Cold Weather Payments are also available and help vulnerable people in receipt of certain income-related benefits to meet additional heating costs, during periods of unseasonably cold weather between 1 November and 31 March. This includes older people in receipt of Pension Credit.
The Warm Home Discount Scheme provides those in receipt of Pension Credit Guarantee Credit a discount of £140 on their energy bill providing their supplier is part of the scheme. There are now 200 thousand fewer pensioners in absolute poverty (both before and after housing costs) than in 2009/10.
There are now 200 thousand fewer pensioners in absolute poverty (both before and after housing costs) than in 2009/10.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to address the issue of new state pension claimants waiting weeks or months for their pension payments to start; and whether everyone reaching state pension age is now being paid their state pension on time.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
We have deployed significant additional resource into the processing of new State Pension claims, the payment of which was particularly affected by the impact of the pandemic.
As a result, all claims received by DWP for UK State Pension should be paid on time, other than for those customers where further information is required, or evidence is awaited. State Pension is paid in arrears and, in most instances, the first payment will be due four weeks after the customer’s 66th Birthday.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many women who were receiving less state pension than they were entitled to have (1) had their payments corrected, and (2) received back payments.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
I refer you to the information published on gov.uk on 22 October 2021. Please see attached document.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government for each of the past ten years, how many (1) women, and (2) men, have had their state pension reduced owing to the death of a partner.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
The information requested is not normally held as part of normal business and cannot be provided as this would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have identified why automatic pension uplifts were not applied since 2008 to women's State Pension when their husbands reached State Pension Age; and what steps they have taken to ensure that future pension payments are subject to checks.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
As set out in the written statement of 4th March 2021, laid in both Houses, the Department IT systems produce an electronic prompt to consider if an individual’s State Pension amount should be increased. The prompt requires Department Staff to take further manual action and, in some cases, this did not take place.
The Department is undertaking additional quality assurance checks to ensure that State Pension payments are accurate.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what interest rate is applied to the arrears payments for women whose automatic pension uplifts were not applied as they should have been since 2008, and who are now receiving the back-dated amounts due.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
Where underpayments are identified, the Department is contacting individuals to inform them of the changes to their State Pension amount and of any arrears payment they will receive in accordance with the law.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to contact all people aged over 80 who are receiving less than the basic State Pension of £82.45 per week, including those receiving no State Pension, so they can be paid their entitlement.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
We encourage everyone to apply for the support they are entitled to. Information on how to make a claim can be found on GOV.UK.
The correction activity, which started on 11 January 2021, is identifying people over age 80 who may have been underpaid Category D State Pension in accordance with the law.
The law, which has been in place under successive governments, is that anyone who is not getting any State Pension when they reach age 80, is required to make a claim to get Category D State Pension (Social Security Administration Act 1992 (Section 1)). There is information on how to make a claim on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have identified why the Pensions Service helpline has been giving incorrect advice to women whose State Pension payments were too low about the accuracy of their payments; and what steps they are taking to improve the quality of the advice offered by the helpline.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
The Department strives every day to deliver the highest possible customer service to millions of people we support.
It is not possible to comment on substantive assertions.
Department staff receive comprehensive training to ensure that they provide customers with accurate information. If a customer feels that we may have given inaccurate information, we will investigate this thoroughly.
The Department is delivering enhanced training for all staff dealing with State Pension cases and we have ensured that all staff, including our partner G4S, have updated lines to take when handling calls from customers.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase take-up of Pension Credit and reduce pensioner poverty, especially for older women.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
There are now 200,000 fewer pensioners in absolute poverty than in 2009/10. The percentage of women aged 75 and over in absolute poverty after housing costs fell from 18 per cent in 2009/10 to 15 per cent in 2019/20.
The Government is committed to continuing to reduce pensioner poverty and Pension Credit has an important role to play, as a source of financial support for all eligible pensioners.
Department of Work and Pension Ministers recently met with stakeholders with an interest in pensioners’ financial wellbeing and the Director General of the BBC to explore opportunities to work together to support the promotion of Pension Credit.
The department continues to make the best use of all our channels to reach those who might be eligible as well as their family and friends. For example, over 11 million pensioners in Great Britain recently received messaging about Pension Credit with their annual State Pension up-rating letter. This highlighted that an award of Pension Credit can mean being eligible for other benefits such as Housing Benefit or a free over-75 TV licence. We also make use of proactive press activity and social media posts to encourage older people to check if they are eligible.
Our online Pension Credit material on gov.uk has also recently being updated, providing helpful information on how Pension Credit can help pensioners and how easy it is to claim particularly with the online service we introduced last year which enables family, friends and organisations to help pensioners, including older women pensioners, make a claim.