Asked by: Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat - Frome and East Somerset)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what is the average processing times for pension credit applications in each of the last five years.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Pension Credit application Average Actual Clearance Times (AACT) are measured weekly. Please see attached annex for details of Pension Credit applications average processing times back to October 2022. We do not hold this information prior to October 2022.
Please note, The Average Actual Clearance Time figures shown are unpublished management information, collected and intended for internal departmental use and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. The figures are rounded to the nearest working day and based on the week the claim was cleared, rather than the week the claim was made.
DWP currently works to a planned timescale of 50 working days to clear Pension Credit claims. The next publication of the Annual Reporting and Accounts will include claims processed in the Financial Year 2024 to 2025, which is due for publication in the summer.
Asked by: Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat - Frome and East Somerset)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the annual pensioner Christmas bonus in line with inflation.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department has no current plans to make such an assessment.
The Christmas Bonus was initially introduced as a one-off payment of £10 in 1972 and has not been uprated or increased on a yearly basis like some benefits.