Claiming State Pension

brewerdave

Pollycat wrote: »

I received a letter from DWP regarding my state pension (due in 3-4 months)
It had clear instructions on how to claim which I followed yesterday.
It took me less than 5 minutes and I received a reference number confirmation immediately.

I think that what has happened, is that some of us have fallen into a black hole of the DWP's making. In my case the "old" State Pension was due ~ 3 years ago. The invitation letter then , has no code, nor is there a code on the deferral letter - I was told over the phone,that I would be able to claim via the Govt. Gateway when I wished to start taking my benefits. However, earlier this year ,the State Pension service was removed from the Gateway with the result that it is no longer possible for me to claim online.
And as I have found the telephone system is badly overloaded:(

Pollycat

brewerdave wrote: »

I think that what has happened, is that some of us have fallen into a black hole of the DWP's making. In my case the "old" State Pension was due ~ 3 years ago. The invitation letter then , has no code, nor is there a code on the deferral letter - I was told over the phone,that I would be able to claim via the Govt. Gateway when I wished to start taking my benefits. However, earlier this year ,the State Pension service was removed from the Gateway with the result that it is no longer possible for me to claim online.
And as I have found the telephone system is badly overloaded:(

Ah.
Is this an issue for those people who have deferred their state pension?

My letter had a 'unique invitation code'.
I had maybe 9 questions to answer:
spouse's name
spouse's DOB (optional)
date of marriage
Had I ever worked abroad?
Had I ever lived abroad?
Bank details

Maybe a few more, I can't remember.

NorthernGeezer_2

I walked my I.T. illiterate brother-in-law through the online process this morning and it was very straight forward, didn't even have to go through the old government gateway palaver.
The last statement was that he should receive his pension notification within 14 days of his pension date.

brewerdave

NorthernGeezer wrote: »

I walked my I.T. illiterate brother-in-law through the online process this morning and it was very straight forward, didn't even have to go through the old government gateway palaver.
The last statement was that he should receive his pension notification within 14 days of his pension date.

...but he ,presumably, had this all important code from the invitation letter? I'm sure the system works now for new claims ,but it hasn't been designed for those who have deferred - one would almost think that the omission was deliberate?:eek:
Wish me luck with the phone queues on Tuesday!!

drumtochty

I did not get my invitation letter. I phoned the pension service dead on 8:00am this morning. I could not get through in the past month at a later time of day.

I had downloaded the application form, filled it in and sent that in to the DWP two weeks ago.

The lady I spoke to was very helpful, found my paper claim in their system and advised she would get that processed.

When asked, she advised that the DWP are aware that a lot of new pension recipients do not recieve the letter to invite them to claim their state pension, therefore no code to clain online but as it is HMRC who send out the invitation to claim, the DWP do not know the reason that HMRC do not send the letter to all new recipients.

ibizafan_2

Same with me. After my 8am phone call on the 28th March, I have now received notification that I will receive my first payment on Monday, then on May 8th I will get my first full four week payment. Just the deferred bit to wait for.