The Pension Service has said it could be 18 months before they are able to provide individual state pension forecasts again. The Pension Service claim that this delay is due to their computer system being updated with the new changes that were introduced in the Pensions Act 2007.
The Pension Act 2007, which comes into force on 6 April 2010, will see the number of year’s contribution drop to 30 years for both men and women, and the state pension age will raise to 68 by the year 2046. The Pension Service said that it ‘cannot give any specific information about your state pension until computer systems have been updated. This may take a number of months’.
Our view
This is unbelievable. In financial services, we are required to ‘treat customers fairly’. Why is it that another area under the Treasury’s wing, the Pensions Service, part of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), does not have to treat its customers fairly. The general public, along with their advisers, will not have a clue which way to turn. Heads should roll. This is yet another example of Government departments not planning, wasting public money and not doing their jobs properly. Yet another unhelpful contribution to the ‘pensions crisis’.
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