Pension Books (Hansard, 22 May 2003)

§ Maria Eagle

This is a matter for Alexis Cleveland, Chief Executive of The Pension Service, to reply. She will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Charlie Mackinnon to John Mann, dated 22 May 2003: The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has asked Alexis Cleveland to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many people in (a) Bassetlaw and (b) Nottinghamshire are not yet in receipt of the new pension books. Due to annual leave I am replying on her behalf. I am pleased to tell you that work on correcting a problem with replacement order books is well under way. The number affected within Bassetlaw are included in the details for Nottinghamshire shown below. I am afraid it is not possible for us to separate the numbers for Bassetlaw itself. 926W Approximately 210 books were sent to Post offices in Nottinghamshire, 66 in Lincoln and 77 in Mansfield that would have been rejected by the Post Office's issuing system if we had not intervened. We have liaised with the Post office and agreed that affected books will be recalled and replacements, which will not suffer rejection, issued. The replacement is largely complete. As at 19 May, 207 of the 210 Nottinghamshire cases have been dealt with. The remaining cases will be dealt with as a matter of priority. The cases falling within the Lincoln and Mansfield areas have all been dealt with. Unfortunately, due to the time required to produce replacements, some new order books will not be with post offices for customer collection until mid week. Customers affected by this will receive a telephone call to explain the reason for the delay and discuss their situation before the date originally set for collection of their replacement order book. Our customers will receive payments due to them as soon as possible and will be offered alternative methods of payment to ensure that they do not suffer hardship because of this technical difficulty. I hope that this is helpful.