Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average length of time his Department takes to process online applications for the state pension is.

The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) does not maintain average processing times relating to online State Pension applications and does not have a target to process online State Pension claims. Customers can claim their State Pension up to four months in advance of reaching pension age by making a clerical, telephone or online application. The Department measures processing times for all claims and monitors the percentage of applications processed by claim date.