§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when the Benefits Agency received application for widowed mother's allowance and widows' payment from Mrs. C. M. of Weston Turville, Buckinghamshire (WA 075311C); when his Department will complete its calculation of her benefit; when she will receive payments; and if he will make a statement. [126529]
§ Angela EagleThe administration of benefits is a matter for Alexis Cleveland, the Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Alexis Cleveland to Mr. David Lidington, dated 19 June 2000:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the widow's benefit claim made by Mrs Caroline Moran, 4 Worlds End Lane, Weston Turville, Aylesbury.
As you will appreciate, individual customers' cases are confidential. I will therefore, write to you privately on this matter.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what his target is for processing applications for widowed mother's allowance; how many applications are being processed within that target time; and if he will make a statement; [126525]
164W(2) how many applicants are currently awaiting a decision on the calculation of their entitlement to widowed mother's allowance; and how many of those have been waiting for more than (a) three months, (b) six months and (c) 12 months; [126523]
(3) what is his policy on paying interest on late payments of widowed mother's allowance. [126524]
§ Angela EagleThe administration of benefits is a matter for Alexis Cleveland, the Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Alexis Cleveland to Mr. David Lidington, dated 19 June 2000:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your Parliamentary questions asking, what his target is for processing applications for widowed mothers allowance; how many applications are being processed within that target time; and if he will make a statement. Also, how many applicants are currently awaiting a decision on the calculation of their entitlement to widowed mother's allowance; and how many of those have been waiting for more than (a) three months, (b) six months and (c) 12 months, and what is his policy on paying interest on late payments of widowed mother's allowance (WMA).
The Benefits Agency (BA) has targets for the clearance of Widows Benefit claims. The targets are measured from the date of receipt of the claim in the BA to the date the benefit is awarded. Figures for the individual widows benefits, such as Widowed Mothers Allowance are not maintained.
The current clearance target is 85 per cent. in 10 days for Widows payment cases and 85 per cent. in 30 days for Widows benefit.
The latest figures available show that for the year ended March 2000, 90.2 per cent. of claims to Widows Payment and 78.5 per cent. of claims to Widows Benefit were cleared within target.
For the months of April and May 2000 the Widows payment clearance is running at 91.5 per cent. and at 84.5 per cent. for Widows Benefit.
Although individual benefit offices would be able to focus on the state of their uncleared claims for management purposes these details are not fed into any national statistical counters. The information required to answer your question could only therefore be obtained at inappropriate cost and effort.
It is clear from the figures quoted above that the clearance target for Widows Benefit claims was not met for 1999–2000. This has been due for the most part to the difficulties associated with the introduction of the new National Insurance computer system (NIRS2). NIRS2 provides the BA with its benefit calculations including those for entitlements to Retirement Pension and Widows Benefits.
Early figures for 2000–2001 as above show an improving level of clearance for Widows Benefit claims as NIRS2 recovery proceeds.
Failure to process a WMA claim within the published operational targets will not, in itself give rise to a special payment. Each case must be considered on its own merits.
In the majority of cases, it is anticipated that claims will be processed by the Agency within published timescales. However, some cases will legitimately take longer to process than others because of the complex nature of the case and the degree of work involved.
Different rules apply where payment was delayed because of the implementation of the new National Insurance Recording System (NIRS2). Where a customer has suffered unreasonable delay and inconvenience in receiving their full entitlement to WMA which was solely attributable to the problems encountered with the implementation of NIRS2, they automatically receive a £10 flat-rate compensatory payment.
Where payment of WMA has been unreasonably and exceptionally delayed due to official error a special compensatory payment in the form of interest would be considered.
165WWhere the customer feels that the compensation calculated does not adequately compensate for the financial loss actually suffered as a direct result of the delay, a specific claim for further compensation should be made by the customer and full supporting evidence of the loss provided.
I hope this is helpful.