Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the procedures her Department has in place to ensure that pension enquiries from members of the public are resolved in a reasonable time period; and if she will make a statement.

For customers wishing to enquire about future pension provision they can request an on-line State Pension forecast. The majority of forecasts are through ‘Check Your State Pension’ or issued the same day, with any follow up enquiries resolved at the point of enquiry.

DWP has a dedicated telephone line for citizens wishing to enquire about any aspect of State Pension. 95% of all incoming calls are answered in real time, with the remaining 5% withdrawing from call waiting queue without being answered. This may be due to demand or customer choice.

The most recent published survey for period 2016/2017 states that 86% of customers are satisfied with the service offered by DWP. Satisfaction amongst State Pension customers had an overall satisfaction rate of 93%, with 62% stating they are “very satisfied” with the service provided.

Services are continually monitored and assessed both in real time to meet any short term peaks in demand and also reviewed for longer term improvements to ensure the service continues to meet customer service expectation.

There are of course other resources for citizens to enquire about future pension entitlement, for example Pension-wise and Gov.uk.