§ 5. Mr. Hurdasked the Minister of National Insurance, how many letters he has received from Members of this House in the past six months complaining of delay in the settlement of pension claims; and when he expects that his Department will be able to give prompt service to the public.
§ Mr. J. Griffithsflue are nearly 4 million contributory pensions now in payment and between 15,000 and 20,000 new claims and upward adjustments of existing pensions are dealt with each week. In the last six months I have received from 6,000 to 7,000 letters from Members of Parliament about individual cases, a substantial proportion of which referred to outstanding claims for uprating. I have explained to the House on a number of occasions the difficulties that have arisen owing to the unsuitability of the old centralised machinery for dealing with the new conditions introduced last October. As the House knows, I have introduced new procedure for the local handling through the officers of the Assistance Board of initial claims for pension and for increased pension on retirement. As a result of these measures, together with the strengthening of the central machinery of the Department to meet the new circumstances, these difficulties have been brought under control, the handling of new claims has been greatly speeded up and there should be no avoidable delay in the clearance of straightforward cases arising in the future. At the same time I should add that I cannot expect that the 191W arrangements will be fully as efficient as I should wish until the full proposed network of local offices is in operation.