Pensions and Overseas Benefits Directorate (Hansard, 30 July 1997)

§ Mr. Denham

One of our key aims is to improve the service provided to claimants and other customers. Queries on Benefits Agency operational matters are the responsibility of Peter Mathison, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to my hon. Friend.

Letter from Peter Mathison to Mr. Keith Vaz, dated 29 July 1997: The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how long it takes the Pensions and Overseas Benefits Directorate to process claims for Retirement Pension and Widow's Benefit for those claiming in (i) India, (ii) Pakistan, (iii) Bangladesh, (iv) Australia, (v) South Africa and (vi) Jamaica. The information is not available in the format requested as statistics are not available by individual country. Such information as is available is shown in the table below:

Year ending 31 March 1997	Target	Achievement
Retirement pension	65 per cent, in 95 days	76 per cent.
	95 per cent, in 300 days	97 per cent.
Widows benefit	65 per cent, in 185 days	83 per cent.
	95 per cent. in 640 days	98 per cent.

The Pensions and Overseas Benefits Directorate handles claims from customers living in over 230 countries around the world. These claims can take longer to clear than their Great Britain counterparts because confirming life event details, such as births, marriages and deaths, is often not straightforward and documentation which is readily available in the UK can take longer to obtain from other countries.