State Retirement Pensions: Forms

(asked on 22nd March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has plans to review (a) support and (b) processes for applicants who require large print versions of state pensions forms in a paper format.


Answered by
Guy Opperman Portrait
Guy Opperman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 28th March 2022

The online State Pension new claims service, Get your State Pension (GySP) is an accessible service so citizens have the option to manually enlarge the text on screen if required. The invitation letter sent to all citizens to invite a new claim to State Pension (SP) has the opening paragraph: If you would like Braille, British Sign Language, a hearing loop, translations, large print, audio or something else, please phone 0800 731 0469 or textphone 0800 731 7339. Additionally, during the claims process, the citizen is also asked if they have any alternative format requirements, such as Large Print. If the citizen selects ‘yes’, this triggers the central computer system to be updated to show they want letters in large print and the letters they receive will automatically be in large print.

A paper claim form, for State Pension (BR1) including large print and Braille versions, is readily available upon request. The form has recently been adapted to meet a RNIB request for accessibility. By contacting telephone 0800 731 0469 or textphone 0800 731 7339 the citizen will be asked if an alternative format [such as Large print] is required. Again, the computer system is updated to show they want letters in large print and the letters they receive will automatically be in large print.

The BR1 claim form is also available for printing on GOV.UK . This is for old rules citizens (men born before 6 April 1951 and women born before 6 April 1953). When printing the BR1 form, the citizen can choose to change the paper size - to print the BR1 form on A3 size paper if required. The new State Pension BR1 form was removed from GOV.UK in 2021 as part of the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) review. This was due to the availability of an accessible on-line claiming service.

The Pension Service continually tries to improve its services to customers and ensures processes are kept under review as necessary.

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