Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has plans to take steps to reduce the number of questions on the Pension Credit application form.

As the Department continues to modernise the Pension Credit service, we review the user experience, balancing simplification of application with capturing the right information to ensure accuracy of award. A key objective of DWP’s Service Modernisation Programme is to utilise end user research to understand how the application process should operate in the future and consider the opportunities on how services can be more user friendly and easily accessible for citizens. To that end we are streamlining all Pension Credit application routes by using information held internally to reduce the number of questions the citizen must answer.

Claims for Pension Credit can be made online, by telephone or by post. By far, the most popular way to claim is online where a claim can be made 24/7 with the help of a family member, a friend or a third party. Via the online service, the maximum number of questions a person needs to answer is 48; for some customers it can be as few as 35 questions. As a result, the online claim form now takes just 16 minutes on average to complete, with 90 per cent of new customers applying using the simple online form, or over the phone.

With the telephone service, the caller will be guided through the claim process. We will keep the Pension Credit application process under review.