Recommendation 28

In our January 2022 report we were concerned that the Department had not given people who were worried that they had been underpaid enough information to find out what they should do, and that there was a risk that many would still miss out on money they should receive.55 In May 2022, the Department wrote to us to say that it would consider the feasibility of doing more to understand the effectiveness of its communications to pensioners who are concerned they may have been underpaid.56 We asked the Department what steps it had taken toward this. It told us that it was reviewing and simplifying its communications with customers, but offered no specific details on the changes it had made as a result. It further explained that its generic message to pensioners who are concerned they may be affected was that “we will get to them” – and that it was being systematic and prioritising case review based on its assessment of claimants’ vulnerability. It said in practice this means it will contact the over-80s and widowed pensioners first.57 We responded that this messaging would not be reassuring to pensioners concerned about their entitlement. The Department reiterated that it encouraged people to wait to be contacted, unless they were in one of several groups: • someone already getting State Pension who got divorced or had their civil partnership dissolved; • a married woman whose husband reached State Pension age after them and who became entitled to his State Pension before 17 March 2008; • a husband, wife, or civil partner in a couple where both had reached State Pension age and the other person has died and not yet claimed their State Pension, or • Someone aged 80 and over who either has no State Pension or Graduated Retirement Benefit, as they need to make a claim to get any Category D State Pension.58 53 DWP ARA 2021–22, page 235 54 Qq 93–96 55 Committee of Public Accounts, Underpayments of the State Pension, Thirty-Third Report of Session 2021–22, HC 654, 12 January