Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 May 2018 to Question 143651 on State Retirement Pensions: Females, how much additional resource has been provided to the Independent Case Examiners Office for 2018/2019; what effect this additional resource is expected to have on waiting times for complaints to be completed; and what proportion of those who responded to the ICE customer survey whose complaint related to WASPI said that they were satisfied with the service they received.

The Independent Case Examiner’s Office will receive funding for thirteen additional staff during the 2018/19 financial year. Decisions as to how those resources are deployed rest with the Independent Case Examiner’s Office. Given the range and compexity of the complaints examined by the Office and the demand led nature of the service it provides, it is not possible to provide reliable predictions on how this will impact on overall waiting times.

Responses to the ICE Customer Satisfaction survey are anonymised and as such its is not possible to determine what proportion of WASPI complainants were satisfied with the service provided by the ICE Office.