Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure adequate resources to support the surge in applications for pension credit.
Prior to the Winter Fuel announcement, Retirement Services Directorate (RSD) had 352 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff deployed on Pension Credit claims. Since the announcement, a deployment plan has been agreed to deploy an additional 537 FTE into RSD to support Pension Credit. With a further 156 FTE planned to onboard from recruitment between November 2024 and January 2025.