§ Paul HolmesTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people did not receive combined benefits payments owing to the breakdown of the link between Pension Service computer systems; when the link broke down; how long the link was broken; how much in benefit payments was not paid in this period owing to the problem; why the Department did not realise the breakdown had taken place until contacted by a benefit recipient; and if he will make a statement. [125932]
§ Malcolm WicksThis is a matter for Alexis Cleveland, Chief Executive of The Pension Service. She will write to the hon. Member.
704WLetter from Alexis Cleveland to Mr. Paul Holmes, dated 17 July 2003:
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has asked me to respond to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many people did not receive combined benefits payments owing to the breakdown of the link between Pension Service computer systems; when the link broke down; how long the link was broken; how much in benefit payments was not paid in this period owing to the problem; why the Department did not realise the breakdown had taken place until contacted by a benefit recipient; and if he will make a statement.
It would appear that the breakdown of the link between The Pension Service computer systems was restricted to a single benefit recipient and was not a national problem affecting numbers of customers. It is of course possible that other cases may have similar circumstances however, we are not aware of any other cases where this problem has occurred.
The customer was receiving a combined payment of Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) and Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA) and then submitted a claim for Retirement Pension (RP). For the RP claim to be assessed and paid, the other two payments for MIG and SDA had to be de-combined as three payments cannot be combined into a single payment for these benefits.
The customer subsequently withdrew the RP claim and an attempt was made to recombine the SDA and MIG payments. However, due to incompatible data being held in the two benefit systems, we were not able to reconnect the interface. Incompatible data may occur due to a simple inconsistency such as an incorrect office code, resulting in the two pieces of information 'missing' each other when attempting to link.
The MIG section was notified on the system on 9 February 2003 when an error message 'interface failed' appeared on the customers account. We were aware that a system error had occurred prior to the customer writing to us and took action to issue payments in the most efficient manner.
Arrears have been paid in full to the customer in question. The customer is currently receiving all benefit entitlement, but these are being paid separately.
The Pension Service has a duty to ensure that all of our customers receive their payments correctly and on time. Therefore alternative arrangements were made to ensure that the customer received the correct payment amounts on time.
I hope that this is helpful.