HC Deb 07 July 2003 vol 408 cc738-41
6. Norman Lamb (North Norfolk)

If he will make a statement on the performance of the Pension Service, with special reference to the speed of dealing with cases. [123526]

The Minister for Pensions (Malcolm Wicks)

The new Pension Service is committed to providing the best possible service to its customers. However, I am of course aware of particular difficulties relating to staffing in the Norwich pension centre, and that pensioners in the east of England are not receiving an acceptable level of service. That is not good enough, and I apologise to those affected. The regional team has developed a recovery plan, which I have discussed with the Pension Service chief executive. This plan will improve processes and increase the number of trained staff to deal with the work load over the coming weeks.

Norman Lamb

I am grateful to the Minister for confirming what the situation is like at the Norwich regional office. Many pensioners are becoming desperate while they wait weeks on end for their claims to be processed. What confidence can we have about the introduction of the pension credit later this year, given the current debacle in local pensions offices, and given what happened with the introduction of the child tax credit earlier this year?

Malcolm Wicks

We have special centres dealing with pension credit applications. With regard to the Norwich pension centre, which I visited in the early days of my career as a Pensions Minister a week or so ago, more staff are being recruited. A further 11 front-line telephone agents joined the centre this week, and last week a further 80 were recruited and are now undergoing training. I am keeping under close attention the situation in Norwich and have apologised to constituents for the poor service. I invite the hon. Gentleman to visit the centre and see for himself what improvements are taking place.

Mr. Tom Harris (Glasgow, Cathcart)

I, too, have received a number of complaints from pensioners in my constituency about the length of time taken and the process involved when applying for several of the benefits. However, they are vastly outnumbered by the pensioners in my constituency who are materially better off thanks to some of the benefits introduced by the Government, notably the minimum income guarantee. Will my hon. Friend assure the House that criticism of the process will not divert the Government from their main task of materially improving the quality of life of the vast majority of pensioners in the United Kingdom?

Malcolm Wicks

I thank my hon. Friend, not least for acknowledging the hard work of the very good staff in the Pension Service. When there are problems, we will acknowledge them, but we are moving in the right direction. The service is new and there are many new buildings, as is the case in Norwich, and new staff have been trained. The objective is clear: we want to offer more support for many of the poorest pensioners in our community. That is why pension credit is so important, not least to elderly women, who tend to be poorer than men. Indeed, two thirds of those benefiting from pension credit are women.

Andrew Selous (South-West Bedfordshire)

The Minister will know that the script used by members of the Pension Service mentions the Post Office card account very much as the last option available. Will he reassure the House that when Pension Service members talk to the public, they will mention the Post Office card account on an equal basis with other means available? If he does not do that, suspicions will persist that the Government do not favour that type of account.

Malcolm Wicks

In all our literature—I am happy to look it at with the hon. Gentleman because I take the matter seriously—and the script used by our colleagues in the centres, the Post Office card account is given prominence alongside other options. Significant numbers of people, not least pensioners, are asking for the Post Office card account—about half those pensioners are asking for that account. That is fine because it meets the pledge that those who want to continue to go to the post office to get their pension will be able to do so, and I assure the hon. Gentleman that that is the case.

Mr. Graham Allen (Nottingham, North)

Does the Minister accept that on Friday, a post office in Nottingham, North received the first ever urban post office grant in order to keep it open? The subsidy is worth about £50,000 and we are very grateful. However, the postmaster told me that he needed the subsidy because when pensioners in the area phone the Minister's Department, the Pension Service or the Inland Revenue, they are often told that they should open a bank account but not told to use their local post office. Will he ensure that there is joined-up thinking so that some Departments do not encourage people to withdraw from post offices while others subsidise post offices so that they may be kept open?

Malcolm Wicks

We have to lay out the options to people honestly and fairly. If anything ever goes wrong with that, we will investigate it seriously because that is important. Large numbers of people are asking for the Post Office card account, which is important for the Post Office because if we are to save our post office networks—both rural and urban—post offices must become modern banking centres for the Post Office card account and, increasingly, a place where customers of other banks and building societies may get their money out. That will add to the economic value of post offices in the future.

Mr. Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne)

May I begin by congratulating the hon. Gentleman on his recent promotion to Minister of State? Given the Secretary of State's description of the Department's computer systems as "very decrepit", what steps is he taking to ensure that the introduction of pension credit does not degenerate into the sort of fiasco that we are witnessing on tax credits and the Child Support Agency?

Malcolm Wicks

I thank the hon. Gentleman and welcome him to his post. I look forward to his recovery—although we might have verbal brawls, we have not been involved in anything more serious.

The computer system that we are using is tried and tested. We know that it works and it will work in this instance, as the record will show. We are confident that we will deliver pension credit. Let us remember that the poorest pensioners will receive on average £400 a year pension credit and many will get more. Whatever our differences on the policy approach, I hope that every Member of Parliament will get behind the measure, because many thousands of people in the average constituency stand to gain from it.