§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners in Shrewsbury and Atcham have been(a) sent details of the new pension credit scheme and (b) informed of the phasing out of pension books. [125628]
§ Malcolm WicksThe information is not available in the form requested. The Pension Service began in April 2003 to write to pensioner households to explain pension credit and to invite applications. The order in which households are contacted has been designed to produce a controlled and measured build up of applications, evenly distributed throughout the UK. The households to be contacted before October represent a cross section of the pensioner population, including pensioners of all age groups and likely levels of eligibility for pension credit. By June 2004, all pensioner households will have been contacted. As part of a separate exercise, The Pension Service also began in April to write to pensioners to invite them to convert to direct payment into an account. This exercise will be completed by October 2004.