§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many calls have been made to the Pension 697W Credit telephone application line; and of that number how many have resulted in (a) successful claims and (b) unsuccessful claims. [128740]
§ Mr. PondThe Pension Credit application line received a total of approximately 413,000 calls between 7 April 2003, when it became operational, and 31 August. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said in his written statement on progress on 14 July 2003,Official Report, columns 6–7WS, there are over 1.1 million pensioner households already on our systems ready to be paid Pension Credit from October. We intend from November to publish monthly reports on the progress of Pension Credit take-on, which will include information on the number of applications.