Pensioner Mailshot Project (Hansard, 29 January 2001)

§ Mr. Darling

The Department will shortly be writing to all pensioner households to inform them of the plans we announced to the House on 29 November 2000 for the amount of State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) that widows or widowers can inherit from their spouse.

In the course of consultation last year, a number of organisations including the select committees of the House asked us to explore the possibility of writing directly to the public about this subject.

The plans we announced in November mean that no current pensioner will now be affected by the changes to the inherited SERPS rules originally legislated for in 1986.

The letter is designed to ensure that all pensioners are aware of these new arrangements and that the change will be effected automatically; so there is no need for them to make any special claim or to contact their local Social Security office for this purpose. Of course they are always able to contact the Benefits Agency over any query about their pension entitlement.

For workload reasons the mailing will take place on a phased basis over the next two months.

The cost of the exercise is estimated at £2.5 million. The text of the letter is as follows.

Dear Mr/Mrs/Miss or Mr and Mrs I am writing to let you know about a recent Government announcement on inheriting SERPS. As well as your basic state pension, you may also get a State Earnings Related Pension (SERPS) if you, or your husband or wife, paid into the scheme when working. You may also know this as "additional pension". In 1986 the law was changed to reduce the amount of SERPS that people widowed after 5 April 2000 could inherit from their husbands or wives. However, it became clear that for many years after 1986 some people were given incorrect or misleading information about the change and so the Government recently announced new plans for how much SERPS can be passed on to a widow or widower, when the person who has contributed to the scheme dies.

Under these new plans there will be no change to the current arrangements for the following people.
Those who are already widowed now and are receiving a SERPS pension.
Those who are not widows or widowers now, but whose husbands or wives die between now and 5 October 2002.
Parliament is also being asked to approve plans, which would mean there would also be no change for people who are widowed on or after 6 October 2002 but whose late husband or wife reached state pension age on or before 5 October 2002.

If you fall into one of the groups above, you do not need to do anything now or make any special claim in future. You can read more about other help and services available to pensioners and how to find them in a new guide for pensioners and from Benefits Agency offices. You will be able to find the local office address and telephone number in the telephone directory. The guide will be available soon, so look out for it in 91W places like your local social security offices, citizens advice bureau or library. If you have access to the Internet, you can also visit our website on www.dss.gov.uk Keep us up to date In future, we want to be able to write to you from time to time to keep you up to date. So we need to have up-to-date details of your address. So, if this letter has had to be redirected to reach you, please fill in the attached change of address form and send it back to us in the enclosed envelope. There's no need for a stamp. Or if you move house, please let us know as soon as possible. Yours sincerely Paul Gray Director of Pensions