Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average processing time is for a new state pension claim; how many unprocessed claims for new state pensions her Department holds; what steps she is taking to tackle delays in processing new state pension claims; and if she will make a statement.

We have deployed significant additional resource onto processing new state pension claims following a backlog in 2021. 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 66^th Birthday.