Asked by: Lord Naseby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will undertake a review of the difficulties experienced at the launch of National Savings and Investments pensioner bonds with particular attention to the failure of the website.
Answered by Lord Deighton
The introduction of the 65+ “Pensioner” Bond has seen the biggest sale of any retail financial product in Britain’s modern history, with over £7.5 billion sold to date. Demand in the first few days was exceptionally high but tens of thousands of savers did successfully purchase bonds during this period, and hundreds of thousands have done so since. National Savings & Investments (NS&I) was quick to respond to the issues faced by some customers in the opening days, for example by adding further call centre staff to manage the high volume of calls. The website is now fully operational, calls are being answered with minimal waiting times, and NS&I now have the capacity to field remaining demand pressures.
Following this unprecedented demand, the government has also extended the availability of the bonds up to 15 May, to ensure all pensioners aged 65 and over who want to benefit from these bonds will have time to do so.
Low interest rates have played an important part in stimulating the recovery. But there are those – especially pensioners – who rely on a reasonable rate of interest on their savings. These new savings bonds pay a market leading rate and are designed to help support those who rely on their savings in retirement.