Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many letters were sent notifying recipients of the change in the state pension age for women since 2010.
People can access the online ‘Check your State Pension’ service through GOV.UK to get a forecast of their State Pension. This includes information about their retirement date, how they may be able to improve the amount of State Pension they are entitled to, as well as providing a view of their National Insurance contribution record. Check Your State Pension service has provided more than ten million online estimates since its introduction in 2016.
The following tables show the number of letters sent out to those people born between 6 April 1950 and 5 April 1960, affected by State Pension age increase in the 1995 and 2011 Pensions Acts. Letter volumes since 2010 can clearly be identified.
The volumes recorded in the second table have been rounded to the nearest 1000 and include mailings undertaken as part of a communications research project, and those sent to men who were also affected by the 2011 Act. It is not possible to provide the volumes sent to women only in relation to the 2011 Act, as we do not hold the information split by gender.
Communication to those affected by the 1995 Act
Customer’s date of birth | Mailing Date | Number of letters sent |
06/04/50 -05/07/50 | April 2009 | 99,985 |
06/07/50 - 05/10/50 | Jul 2009 | 96,356 |
06/10/50 - 05/04/51 | Oct 2009 | 191,465 |
06/04/51- 05/10/51 | Jan 2010 | 196,189 |
06/10/51 – 05/04/52 | Apr 2010 | 188,515 |
06/04/52 – 05/10/52 | Feb 2011 | 196,594 |
06/10/52 – 05/04/53 | Mar 2011 | 191,665 |
Communication to those affected by the 2011 Act
Customer’s date of birth | Mailing Date | Number of letters sent |
06/04/53 – 05/12/53 | Jan 2012 | 275,000 |
06/12/53 – 05/10/54 | Feb 2012 | 646, 000 |
06/10/54 – 05/04/55 | Feb 2012 | 375, 000 |
06/04/55 – 05/04/60 | Oct 2012 – Nov 2013 | 4,475,000 |
To clarify, mailings undertaken as part of the communications research project have been included in the above table.