HC Deb 02 April 2001 vol 366 cc92-3W
Mr. Barron

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on his plans for the new organisation for pensioners. [156801]

Mr. Darling

We are aiming to provide a service more tailored to the requirements of different groups of customers served by the Department.

Pensioners have distinct and specific needs. It is important that we develop a modern, integrated service designed to meet these needs.

So we are setting up The Pension Service within the Department which will be solely focused on the needs of today's and tomorrow's pensioners dealing with everything from policy development to frontline service delivery.

The Pension Service will provide a new and radically better service for today's pensioners so that they will have a single, easily accessible point of contact for all social security benefits, making full use of opportunities provided by new technology including the internet.

It will also provide help for tomorrow's pensioners by working co-operatively with the private pensions industry to design and regulate appropriate pensions products and providing accurate information to help them make decisions about their future pensions.

Pension services will be designed and delivered through a combination of new centralised operations and local services. The new centralised operations will provide today's and tomorrow's pensioners with an integrated service.

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