New State Pension Claim Payment Delays Fixed

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the body that looks after benefits including state pensions has had much criticism during the pandemic.

• Delays in responding to enquiries resulting in months of backlogs.
• Delays in payments to new state pension claimants meaning pensioners going short for weeks and months.
• Removal of the Triple Lock link to earnings inflation increases removed for 2022/23.

The DWP has apologised to all those that have hit state pension age 66 during the pandemic and faced delays in state pensions payments for weeks.

The DWP has suggested that the impact of covid-19, home working, self isolating and staff infections has left the DWP with worker shortages resulting in thousands of people and particularly the less ‘well off’ suffering financially. 

To remedy the position, the DWP said it has re-tasked hundreds of employees to clear the backlog and get things back to normal.

Guy Opperman, Pensions Minister has advised a government select committee that all new state pension claimants should now be processed on time and the backlog will be cleared and back to normal by the end of October 2021.

Comment

The sheer scale of the benefits system and staff shortages has no doubt put pressure on government departments as well as the private sector in delivering goods and services.  We are delighted that the DWP has taken action to ensure that pensioners will have the incomes that they so desperately need in a more timely manner.