Pensions (Hansard, 4 March 2004)

§ Mr. Hoban
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on delays to processing entitlement to retirement pensions for the recently widowed. [158702]

§ Malcolm Wicks
Where pensioners are recently widowed, they may be entitled to have their pensions increased by virtue of the National Insurance contributions paid by their deceased spouses. The assessment of any entitlement to an increased pension is carried out by the National Pension Centre in Newcastle. While this assessment is being carried out, widows will continue to receive their own pensions and can also apply for interim payments to top this up.
The National Pension Centre also deals with new claims for pensions from people who have previously been divorced or widowed, and changes of circumstances for over four million pensioners who have their pensions paid direct into a bank account.
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A recent build up of work in the Centre has been caused largely as a result of the Centre temporarily dealing with some work appropriate to the 26 Regional Pension Centres. As that work will return to the Regional Centres, and an additional 100 staff have been employed, the work at the National Pension Centre should be returned to normal levels by June. The number of cases outstanding where the pensioner has been recently bereaved has been reduced from over 20,000 at the end of December to just over 14,000 currently.

§ Mr. Hoban
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what target has been set for the processing of entitlements to retirement pensions for the recently widowed; and whether this target is being met. [158703]

§ Malcolm Wicks
There is no target set specifically for the processing of entitlements to retirement pensions for the recently widowed. Where pensioners are recently widowed, they may be entitled to have their pensions increased by virtue of the National Insurance contributions paid by their deceased spouses. The assessment of any entitlement to an increased pension is carried out by the National Pension Centre in Newcastle.
When notified that a pensioner has been recently widowed, The National Pension Centre will assess whether the bereaved spouse can have their own pension increased, based on the contribution payments of their deceased partner. The National Pension Centre aims to deal with 95 per cent. of such changes within 17 days. As at the end of December performance against this target for the year was at 90.6 per cent.

§ Mr. Webb
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many people above state pension age he estimates are not drawing a state retirement pension because they have deferred taking a state pension; and if he will make a statement; [158767]
(2) how many (a) men and (b) women drawing state retirement pensions are receiving increments because they deferred drawing that pension beyond state pension age, broken down by the length of time for which that pension was deferred. [158770]

§ Malcolm Wicks
It is not possible to say exactly how many people are deferring their State Pension at a single point in time because it is not necessary to inform the Department for Work and Pensions of an intention to defer.
However, estimates from the Government Actuary's Department suggest that approximately 120,000 pensioners in total are not drawing their state pension at the moment.
Information on current pensioners who have deferred their pension is not available in the form requested, but there are currently around 1.14 million pensioners in total with increments, of whom 893,000 are women. These figures include a small number of people who have inherited increments from their partner's contribution record and will have not actually deferred retirement themselves.