The day after my state pension qualifying age, nothing heard from the DWP

TaweJohn

Hi, just to say that my wife is experiencing the same problem. We completed the online form in March. My wife's birthday 14 July 1955,  we heard nothing, wrote on 14th July to follow up, no response.

Today my wife telephoned the application telephone number, waited an hour to  speak to someone and be told there was a "Bank Fail" which appears to be an internal system fault and not to do with the bank receiving the payment. The lady said she would email the relevant section. So, hopefully will be sorted soon.

I am really surprised that the DWP do not have any electronic means of contacting them, either by chat or email.

I hope that you have been able to contact them and resolve the issues which is holding up your payment. Good Luck

rosalind110

Thank you very much for your response, which might explain the whole thing.  What I find quite amazing in your wife's case and mine is that, current technical payment difficulties apart, in five months, the DWP has apparently not even bothered to send out the standard by post notification of our pension entitlement and payment method and date.  Nor have they apparently bothered to inform all the people who depend on a state pension just to survive that their payments are being held up due to technical difficulties!


Ostensibly, the DWP does have means of contact that deaf people can use, but, sadly, none of them works for me. Their website, on which people should be able to access their personal pension accounts, requires that you verify your identity using services provided by one of two third party websites.  Unfortunately, I only possess a passport and do not have a driver's license or a government ID card (which costs £21 and may take up to 30 days to be issued). Nor is my mobile phone on a contract, so I only have one of the two means of identity required.  They also suggest that a relay service for the deaf is used, but this won't work on any device that I own or that my son owns....

xylophone

They also suggest that a relay service for the deaf is used, but this won't work on any device that I own or that my son owns....

Did you try RNID?

molerat

rosalind110 said:

Their website, on which people should be able to access their personal pension accounts, requires that you verify your identity using services provided by one of two third party websites.  Unfortunately, I only possess a passport and do not have a driver's license or a government ID card (which costs £21 and may take up to 30 days to be issued). Nor is my mobile phone on a contract, so I only have one of the two means of identity required.  They also suggest that a relay service for the deaf is used, but this won't work on any device that I own or that my son owns....

My SIL verified with only a passport as the document and the rest was through CRA type questions - when did you open credit card account, which bank do have a credit card with etc.

rosalind110

Well, it wouldn't let me in with just a passport and insisted on a second means of identity, which I don't have.

xylophone

Well, it wouldn't let me in with just a passport and insisted on a second means of identity, which I don't have.

Did RNID offer any help?

elouise01582

I used the post office to verify my identity and just used my mobile phone to read the biometric photo page - it then asked me to take a photo of myself on my mobile and that was enough.  Could someone do that for you so you can register?

rosalind110

elouise01582 said:

I used the post office to verify my identity and just used my mobile phone to read the biometric photo page - it then asked me to take a photo of myself on my mobile and that was enough.  Could someone do that for you so you can register?

I used my passport on Post Office verify in exactly the way that you describe and it was accepted.  I was then asked for a second means of identification, of which the only one I possess is a mobile phone.  However, the verification method using a mobile phone is through a contract which I do not have because I own my phone outright and use a SIM card to pay for services.
 

rosalind110

Update on my situation. 

I wrote to my MP, who wrote back the next day, asking for further details so that she could contact the DWP.  Today she emailed me a copy of the reply sent to her by the DWP.  It states the amount that I will receive and says that my first four weeks of pension will be paid in arrears into my bank account on 26th August, and four weekly thereafter.  I still haven't received a letter from the DWP, but they claim in the email to my MP that they sent one out on 19th August, so it may still be in the post.

Thanks to everyone for your advice and help, without which I would still be in the dark.

I now have another query concerning the amount of the pension they have said I'll receive.  According to my Government Gateway account, I have, and I quote, 

"45 years of full contributions

1 year to contribute before 5 April 2021

4 years when you did not contribute enough"

by my estimation, that would mean that I have around 40 years of full National Insurance contributions, and the 'New State Pension' page of the UK Government website states that "a woman born on or after 6 April 1953", will "need 35 qualifying years to get the full new State Pension" of "£179.60 per week".  However, they've awarded me £149.29 per week. 

Since I still have no means of contacting them, does anyone have any suggestions as to what to do about this?


 

  

rosalind110

xylophone said:

Well, it wouldn't let me in with just a passport and insisted on a second means of identity, which I don't have.

Did RNID offer any help?

I decided to go with the MP option, so did not contact them.  However, even though the matter of my pension is now resolved, the matter of the DWP's lack of a means of accessible communication is still an issue, so I will probably contact them about that.  Thanks for the suggestion.