In December 2022, Greater Manchester Law Centre, in association with the National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers (NAWRA), conducted a survey into recent delays in processing Pension Credit claims. Here, we present our findings and recommendations to the Pension Service and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Background and Context
As the cost-of-living crisis hit and energy prices rose in April 2022, the government launched a campaign to encourage pensioners to apply for Pension Credit, which is a form of benefit designed to supplement the income of low-income pensioners over the age of 66.
Following this campaign, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), who administer Pension Credit, received a large number of claims. These claims are purportedly processed within 6 weeks, but anecdotally, many advisers and claimants have reported severe delays in receiving a response. On 6 November 2022, The Observer reported that pensioners were waiting “months” for their claim to be processed. On 14 November 2022, the Minister for Pensions claimed that the DWP “currently aim to process claims within 35 days from receipt”. As of 8 December 2022, the government were still encouraging new applicants to apply without mentioning the delays.
GMLC, in partnership with the National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers (NAWRA) conducted a survey of advisers and claimants in December 2022 to determine whether Pension Credit delays were happening, and if so, whether these delays were widespread.
Results
Between 30 November and 19 December 2022, our survey was filled in by 77 welfare rights advisers from across a wide geographical spread in England, Wales and Scotland. Welfare rights adviser respondents were asked how many Pension Credit claims or changes they had notified in the last year. In total, our survey suggests that we collected data from advisers handling over 2000 claims or changes in total, at a conservative estimate.
Our results suggested:
- In total, 76 (98.7%) respondents said that they were waiting on average more than 6 weeks for claims or changes to be processed. Only 1 respondent, who claimed they had handled around 4 claims in the last year, said that on average their claims or changes were processed within 6 weeks.
- 45 (58.4%) respondents said they waited on average between 12 weeks and 6 months for claims or changes to be processed.
- 12 (15.6%) respondents said that they were waiting on average more than 6 months for claims and changes to be processed. A third (4) of these respondents said they had handled between 51 and 100 claims in the last year, representing at least 204 claims where the average wait was over 6 months.
- The longest any respondent claimed they had waited for the processing of a claim or change was 2 years, and this was due to a combination of errors and delays throughout the process.
This is in contrast to the DWP’s suggestion that claims are processed within 6 weeks, and suggests it takes more than twice as long for claims to be processed as the DWP have said.
Many advisers complained of the delays and the adverse effect it was having on their clients’ financial and psychological wellbeing. Many advisers suggested the Pension Service has become considerably worse in 2022, having knock-on effects on people’s other entitlements, such as to Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reductions and cost-of-living support payments. Others mentioned that they felt the system might have been impacted since the Covid pandemic. Advisers stressed the frustration they are experiencing in trying to get any form of response from the service by phone or email, with many saying that the promised callbacks rarely if ever take place.
Qualitative data from advisers
We also asked advisers to comment on their experiences with the Pension Service in an optional question. Most respondents took the opportunity to comment, with almost all comments being negative.
Many advisers complained of the delays and the adverse effect it was having on their clients’ financial and psychological wellbeing. Many advisers suggested the Pension Service has become considerably worse in 2022, having knock-on effects on people’s other entitlements, such as to Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reductions and cost-of-living support payments. Others mentioned that they felt the system might have been impacted since the Covid pandemic. Advisers stressed the frustration they are experiencing in trying to get any form of response from the service by phone or email, with many saying that the promised callbacks rarely if ever take place.
“In our experience, the callbacks never happen and even when we initiated a verbal complaint we never received a callback about it. The Pension Credit claim I most recently did was only awarded after 17 weeks as I got the local MP involved.”
– Welfare rights adviser in a cancer support charity in Manchester.
“[S]ervice is very patchy and poor and delays are always part of the process, as [are] staff who have no proper training and don’t seem to know the rules.”
– Welfare rights adviser in a housing association in Hampshire.
“Clients are getting very frustrated, particularly when it is having a knock on effect on things like housing benefit claims.”
– Citizens Advice welfare rights adviser in London.
“Pension Credit timescales have really slipped really over the last 6 months. Delays in processing have caused a knock-on effect for people receiving their cost of living payments. This is unacceptable as it is a low income benefit and people are in dire straits.”
– Welfare rights adviser for a Scottish housing association.
“Even where clients are terminally ill and DWP has been notified of this, claims are not handled in a timely manner (they are less delayed, but still delayed).”
– Welfare rights adviser in a cancer charity in Glasgow.
There are fuller results from the survey, including more qualitative data and a breakdown of our results, here: Investigating Pension Credit delays GMLC & NAWRA.
Our recommendations
Following on from the results of the survey, NAWRA and GMLC have recommended:
- The Pension Service should provide a public admission of the processing failures that have been taking place, and state what steps will be taken to resolve the problems claimants and advisers have been facing.
- The Pension Service should put in place a timescale for reducing delays to bring the average claim/change time down to their target time of 6 weeks.
- Staffing levels and staff training should be reviewed to ensure staff are capable of delivering on the Service’s expected timescales and level of service.
- Policies around claimants who are terminally ill or in severe hardship (e.g. at risk of eviction or repossession as a result of rent/mortgage arrears) should be reviewed to provide escalation routes where necessary.
- The DWP should publish annual updates that accurately represent key service figures, such as the processing time for claims and changes, for ongoing monitoring purposes.
