Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department took to ensure that people who were not able to claim their deferred pension as a one-off lump sum, those who reached pension age after 6th April 2016, were aware of this change.

The Department for Work and Pensions carried out a comprehensive communications campaign on State Pension reforms, beginning in 2014 for the reforms which were introduced in April 2016. The campaign included advertisements in newspapers, online and on radio stations across the country as well as working through stakeholders to raise public awareness of the changes.

The awareness-raising campaign directed people to a significant package of online information about the State Pension at www.gov.uk. Specific information about deferral rules can be found at www.gov.uk/deferring-state-pension/

Letters inviting people to claim their State Pension also provided details of the changes to the deferral rules.