Why hasn't this been exposed in the national media???

[SeverePensionCreditDelays]

My DP has now been waiting for 4 MONTHS for their pension credit claim to come through! They have phoned up several times. First were told the application had been received but not yet opened. Phone in 10 days. Second time they must just wait. Third time they were asked to send some paperwork to DWP - that was a month ago.

After doing some online research it is apparent that processing times for pension credit applications have been backlogged for well over a year, with thousands of claimants waiting in excess of 6 months for their claims to come through.

AIBU to think this is utterly appalling? The government maintain that they are doing everything they can to help with the cost of living, yet are leaving vulnerable elderly people in limbo.

https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/17986

Pension credit are just probably getting a lot more claims in the past year than they are geared up to cope with. I think a lot more pensioners are living longer, living with disabilities so claim Attendance allowance which then often passports them to receiving pension credit especially likely if they live on their own. This may be a bit controversial but I help a lot of people do AA claims and I think many older people who previously didn't need to claim or didn't want to ( because lots of older people are very proud and don't want to claim if they don't need to ) are now forced to due to the cost of living crisis and being unable to heat their homes etc. They claim Attendance allowance, this brings them into being eligible to claim pension credit, so wait times jump hugely. Just before Christmas wait times for AA claims were getting on for 14 weeks, wheras for many years previously they were fairly stable at 8-9 weeks.

I spoke to one DWP call handler a few months ago and all I could hear was seagulls !! Reckon he was either sat out on his balcony working from home or taken his laptop on holiday !!!

Pension credit delays are ongoing, despite brief media reporting last year highlighting it. Earlier this year, government 'spokespeople' claimed the backlog has since improved and would go back to normal by March.

Their tactics are rotten. The comeback to media reports, and their own advertising for pension credit uptake, is a hideous facade to win votes. Giving the appearance they're doing something to help with the cost of living crisis when they are not/ do not aim to fulfill any offered support.

I smell a rat - they are waiting for people to give up hope and or die. The same goes for PIP, passports, DVLA, etc delays.

ODFOD.

Most civil servants are working extremely hard after having resources cut to the bone by 13yrs of Conservative Government, whilst being villified every day in the right wing press and being unable to defend themselves.

Maybe write to your MP and ask them to allow recuritment of more staff so we can deal with the backlogs instead of complaining about WFH (which the vast majority of CS did very successfully before covid anyway! 🙄)

Definitely write to your MP. BBC Radio 4 Moneybox is also good at highlighting this sort of thing.

But it's probably the system struggling to cope with an increased number of applications due to raised awareness not helped by staff shortages because pay for public sector admin jobs is generally NMW so there's the same recruitment issues that affect other low paid professions.

I think a lot of the delay with ESA/PIP/DLA claims, is due to no face to face meetings with the health care professionals ( ATOS ) taking place because of covid.
I think i read that new claims for PIP, were being prioritised over renewals of current claims, which are taking up to a year in some places, with perhaps an extra year on top of that, if the claimant needs to go to appeal.

The services in place aren’t fit for the demand, with massive backlogs across several departments.

A lot of it is low staffing, and how staff are utilised. It’s what’s commonly called a shitshow.

This is absolutely the case!
more staff required, and any way most are back in the office, working hard, under stress and dealing with some very entitled and rude people. And yes, under paid as always

The backlog is due to the absolute huge increase in applications over the past year or so due to the COL crisis. The influx of Ukrainian refugee pension credit applications hasn't helped either.

Working at home has nothing to do with it. Agents are monitored heavily, it's incredibly difficult for them to try to work avoid (agents don't even have a comfort break option for if they need to pee between breaks).

That used to happen to us in our central Bristol office near the docks if we had the windows open. Gulls get a long way inland. I am a retired Civil Servant and I can tell you that the vast majority work very hard, often for little thanks, and very poor wages.

These data processors are really hard working, poorly paid and have to put up with abuse from the lovely public day in, day out. They are leaving the profession in their 1,000's along with all the other people abandoning jobs that involve working with the public, e.g hospitality sector, care sector, public sector, NHS etc. It's a slippy slope and worth remembering by us all if we ever think of being abusive of snippy with these dedicated but pushed to the limit workers.

Exactly right @FrostieBoabby , @CharlottenBurger , @AndTheSurveySays , and @LisbonKid !! Makes me so cross to see these lazy comments wheeled out on MN time and time again.

I feel I have to put in a good word for the DWP. My DH died last year, I phoned them to advise of his death so that his state pension would cease, I was immediately advised that I could apply for bereavement allowance, the application was made there and then and before long it was paid. All done efficiently and without fuss. My own state pension started shortly afterwards with no problems, I had claimed online as soon as I was able. Maybe I was lucky to have no problems with them.

I recently tried for three days solidly to get through to the PIP helpline, bearing in mind that's for the most vulnerable in society. It cut me off every time, often after being on hold for 30 minutes plus. I never did get through.

Civil Service recruitment, planning and consistency of service was probably also not helped by having a new government/minister every other month or so.

My company (different department) does private sector pensions administration. The pandemic barely affected our service and yet this fell apart - perhaps because everyone in DWP has a safe job (I realise that not everyone there is to blame but clearly enough are....)

I think they don't want people to bother claiming.

Like with after tax pension contributions on tax credits. It would be easy to add a section for deductions but instead they make it as confusing as possible. It's worded like they just want your gross income on your p60, but really you need to manually take deductions off at this point. They it won't match your p60 so you have to phone and tell them why, which takes hours.

I don’t think they’ve improved PIP times much, I’ve been on that particular journey for 20 months now, the tribunal has ruled that I should get it over two months ago and still not a penny, they can’t agree on the starting date!

Tribunals are still taking ages but initial decisions have been very quick in my area in recent months -around 3 months from sending the form back to getting a decision.

Ah ha ha ha ha. The main problem is there aren’t enough civil servants because pay and conditions are crap. Some departments had to give the lowest paid staff (eg the people handling your passport or benefits claim) a pay rise to reach this year’s minimum wage. And they get slagged off in the press and by the gullible on Mumsnet while being shouted at on the phone by stressed people they can’t help. For less than they’d get working at Aldi. Total mystery why there’s a recruitment and retention problem.

Hmrc is a nightmare at the moment too.

Just seems like government departments are so underfunded and while the cracks have been there for a while, they are really showing now. Every department seems to be crumbling

I've been waiting for my PIP decision since I sent off the forms on 7th September!! Every time I call they explain it's terribly delayed and that's it. Its awful.

There are many more disabled people waiting months and months for disability benefits. I help out with applications for my local disability charity and 6 months isn’t unusual. It’s not news to those who are familiar with the workings of the DWP and it’s been like this for some time

All government systems are in a mess. DVLA has been an abomination since covid, when they completely ceased doing anything.

The Times are also doing campaigns/investigations on similar Government departments, such as HMRC and the NHS.