§ Mr. Peter DuncanTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on delays in making the annual payment to the pension schemes of those who have opted out of SERPS. [33069]
§ Dawn PrimaroloThere are currently no delays in making the annual payments to the pension schemes of those who have opted out of SERPS.
848WHowever, an IT server owned by the Inland Revenue which receives information from pension providers was decommissioned in error when an office move took place in April 2000 resulting in a delay in processing data on new personal pensions applications and terminations from existing personal pensions. This error is very much regretted.
The Inland Revenue is currently checking the cases affected and expect to process all of them and make the delayed payments and recoveries of age-related rebates during February.
New personal pension application and termination information is now being processed normally.