Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her Department’s policy is on how decisions are confirmed by the Department and external agencies on pension credit entitlement.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DWP does not provide notifications of Pension Credit entitlement, or non-entitlement, by telephone as all decisions are provided to customers by letter. In the instances when a Pension Credit application is unsuccessful, the decision letter explains how the customer can request a mandatory reconsideration from the Department if they disagree with the decision.
Decisions about Pension Credit entitlement are made by decision makers of the Department for Work and Pensions acting on behalf of the Secretary of State and not by external agencies. Decisions about Pension Credit entitlement are notified in writing and claimants are given written notice of their rights of appeal.
The information is not available in the instances when a Pension Credit application is unsuccessful, the decision letter explains how the customer can request a mandatory reconsideration if they disagree with the decision.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were notified of their non-entitlement to pension credit in writing; and how many of those people were informed of their entitlement to mandatory reconsideration in each of the last two years.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DWP does not provide notifications of Pension Credit entitlement, or non-entitlement, by telephone as all decisions are provided to customers by letter. In the instances when a Pension Credit application is unsuccessful, the decision letter explains how the customer can request a mandatory reconsideration from the Department if they disagree with the decision.
Decisions about Pension Credit entitlement are made by decision makers of the Department for Work and Pensions acting on behalf of the Secretary of State and not by external agencies. Decisions about Pension Credit entitlement are notified in writing and claimants are given written notice of their rights of appeal.
The information is not available in the instances when a Pension Credit application is unsuccessful, the decision letter explains how the customer can request a mandatory reconsideration if they disagree with the decision.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of confirmations of pension credit non-entitlement that were given over the phone in the last 12 months; and of those confirmations how many were given the option of mandatory reconsideration.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DWP does not provide notifications of Pension Credit entitlement, or non-entitlement, by telephone as all decisions are provided to customers by letter. In the instances when a Pension Credit application is unsuccessful, the decision letter explains how the customer can request a mandatory reconsideration from the Department if they disagree with the decision.
Decisions about Pension Credit entitlement are made by decision makers of the Department for Work and Pensions acting on behalf of the Secretary of State and not by external agencies. Decisions about Pension Credit entitlement are notified in writing and claimants are given written notice of their rights of appeal.
The information is not available in the instances when a Pension Credit application is unsuccessful, the decision letter explains how the customer can request a mandatory reconsideration if they disagree with the decision.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the accuracy of the decisions made for pension credit applications by the telephone service managed by Capita plc since that service began.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Capita provided a pre-application service on behalf of the DWP for customers who made enquiries about Pension Credit by using an online calculator available on GOV.UK. If the calculator indicated that a customer may be entitled to Pension Credit, Capita signposted the customer to the DWP to make an application.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many notifications of entitlement to pension credit were confirmed (a) in writing and (b) over the phone in each of the last two years.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The DWP provides confirmation of a customer’s Pension Credit entitlement in writing, by post, after a valid claim has been made. The DWP also provides customers with a pre-claim telephone service for those who wish to enquire whether they may be entitled to Pension Credit. This process involves the customer providing the DWP with income and capital information and using an online calculator to initially assess whether entitlement may exist. This information then enables the customer to make an informed decision whether to make a Pension Credit claim to the DWP.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what processes her Department uses to notify people of their state pension entitlement.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Provided that a person has a National Insurance number, we will normally send them details about their options for claiming their State Pension (including how they can put off claiming State Pension to get extra State Pension), to the address held for them on our computer systems about four months before they reach State Pension age.
In law, the responsibility for claiming any benefit lies with the person concerned. However, as part of our service to people approaching State Pension age, we provide some initial information about their pension entitlement and invite them to complete their State Pension claim either online, by phone or using the specific claim form.
We try to contact people to invite them to make a claim to State Pension but this can only succeed where the latest address held on our records is correct. These records are updated when claims are made or, in some cases, when National Insurance contribution queries are investigated. Otherwise, we rely on the individual notifying us of a change of address.
While a person may not receive their individual notification about claiming their State Pension, most people know when to claim. Each person should make appropriate enquiries about State Pension entitlement if they do not hear from us. There is an extensive range of information about the State Pension and social security benefits online at www.gov.uk.
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When a valid State Pension claim has been made, a DWP decision maker notifies a customer by letter of any entitlement. DWP then issues annual State Pension increase notifications by letter to customers’ based on the Chancellor’s Budget Announcement to confirm the new rate of State Pension payable each April.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have not received notification of state pension entitlement within two months of retirement in each of the last three years.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This information is only available at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department provides compensation to people who do not receiver notification of state pension entitlement within two months of their retirement date.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DWP aims to award State Pension claims within 10 workings days of the date in which the customer chose their claim to commence.
On the occasions when a customer is dissatisfied with the service provided by the Department, the DWP complaints procedure includes the provision for a special payment to be made for any delays which may have occurred.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have retired in advance of receipt of notification of their state pension entitlement in each of the last three years.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This information is only available at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her Department's implementation plan is for banning the box on job applications.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The application form template used by the Government Recruitment Services (GRS), who manage all recruitment activities on DWPs behalf, does not ask about criminal convictions.
This particular question is only raised as part of the pre-employment checking for candidates who have been deemed successful at the last stage of the recruitment process.
DWP are fully compliant with the ban the box initiative. Therefore, no advertised jobs were excluded in 2016 or 2017.