§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many newly qualified pensioners have lost part of their state retirement pension in each of the past five years on account of failure to apply within three months of the qualifying date for first payment; what the total was in(a) unpaid pension entitlement and (b) discretionary payment of restored pension in cases where administration failure has occurred; and if he will make a statement. [56590]
§ Mr. McCartneyBecause pensioners can elect to defer payments of their pensions for up to five years in order to earn increments which increase the amount payable, information on the number of people who fail to make a claim for state retirement pension within the statutory period is not available.
In a very small number of cases administrative failure causes the late payment of entitlements. Where this is the case extra statutory payments of state retirement pension are paid. Details of payment in the last five years are set out in the table.
856W
Period Cases paid Total amount paid (£) 1997–981 241 674,776.23 1998–991 204 513,077.55 1999–20001 150 347,599.80 2000–011 291 659,868.56 2001–021 138 286,233.40 112 months April to March