Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 October 2017 to Question 108665, and with reference to the Answer of 3 November 2017 to Question 109823, and the Answers of 21 December 2017 to Questions 120382 and 120384, what criteria his Department used to determine that the advertising campaign carried out to raise awareness of the new state pension age under the provisions of the 1995 Pensions Act was extensive.

Between 2001 and 2004 the Department ran a ‘pensions education’ communications campaign. The Department’s research report No 221, Public awareness of State Pension age Equalisation, published in 2004, referred to the campaign in question. It stated:

This campaign included the following:

• advertising features in the press including information on the ‘equalisation of State Pension age’ (SPa);
• a ‘Women’s Pensions Pack’ containing leaflets for women on pensions and the changes in women’s SPa is available from the Pensions Service;
• direct mailings targeted specifically at women, highlighting that the SPa for women is changing;
• the Department’s State Pension forecast letters and the accompanying leaflet showing the recipient’s SPa and explaining who is affected by the changes to the SPa for women;
• The Pension Service website contains an interactive State Pension date/age calculator facility. This enables women and men to enter their date of birth and find out their own individual State Pension date and age.

It was on bases like these that we described the campaign as “extensive”.