Delays to State Pension for Newbies

DairyQueen

Thrugelmir said:

DairyQueen said:

Thrugelmir said:

Pollycat said:

Thrugelmir said:

Pollycat said:

Thrugelmir said:

Pollycat said:

Disregarding the last half dozen posts, the fact remains that - for whatever reason - people's state pension payments are not being processed in a timely manner.

And the pandemic rolls on and on. 

It's about time we stopped using that as an excuse.

Easy for the armchair critics to solve very challenging problems. In the real world, time doesn't stand still long enough to recover lost output quickly. 

Do you think it's a valid excuse 19 months on?

Depends on how much back log accumulated due to office closures during lockdown, getting staff equipped to work from home. 

Whether there's been a net loss of headcount over the period. Recruitment and training will have been extremely challenging. 

How long it took to get the IT infrastructure upgraded to enable staff to WFH.

The loss of productive time due to people suffering from Covid. Looking after their children whilst schools were closed. 

Even organising teams to work remotely from home will have been a challenge. 

Distributing post received won't have been easy.  Those employees on site will have been working in a very restricted environment. 


Having experienced major system breakdowns myself. I'm not surprised that clearing a backlog can be measured in years and months not hours.  A weeks work for somebody on 35 hours a week. Would take 7 weeks to recover if they worked an additional hour a day every day. This doesn't factor in absence through holidays and sickness. 


Then of course staff gewt diverted to deal with the endless complaints. Reducing actual productive time further. 

We live in an impatient world. Where it's expected that somebody can conjour up solutions instantly. Not the way the real world works unfortunately. 

How then do we explain many private sector companies' ability to provide a pretty seamless service regardless of all of the challenges that you mention? 

Have they? Name a public company comparable to the DWP. DWP has around 96,000 employees. For a reference point.  My partner is still awaiting her annual AVC statement for the year to the 31st March 2021.  As there's a backlog of processing to be caught up with.

Then there's the delays in investors  switching their ISA's and pensions between platforms often reported on MSE. Often running to months. 

Then there's the court backlog. 

Philips: employees = 81,500 (exemplary service)
Microsoft: employees = 181,000
Unilever: employees = 149,000
Shell: employees = 86,000

Need I go on?

NHS: employees = 1.3 million

Compared to private companies DWP just about hits the big time. As a public service it's small fry.

I have received my pension statements on time from HL and AJ Bell. Perhaps your partner should have chosen a pension provider geared toward 21st century service standards?

Pollycat

Thrugelmir said:

Pollycat said:

Thrugelmir said:

Pollycat said:

Thrugelmir said:

Pollycat said:

Disregarding the last half dozen posts, the fact remains that - for whatever reason - people's state pension payments are not being processed in a timely manner.

And the pandemic rolls on and on. 

It's about time we stopped using that as an excuse.

Easy for the armchair critics to solve very challenging problems. In the real world, time doesn't stand still long enough to recover lost output quickly. 

Do you think it's a valid excuse 19 months on?

 

We live in an impatient world. Where it's expected that somebody can conjour up solutions instantly. Not the way the real world works unfortunately. 

People aren't being impatient.
They are quite reasonably complaining that they are being expected to wait for something that they are entitled to.
And that's causing severe financial hardship to some people.

xylophone

We live in an impatient world. 

It seems that people have applied for the SP months before it was due payable.

And "impatient" to expect that the pension on which they may well depend should be paid on time?

Would you suggest that people wanting their salaries to be paid on time were "impatient"?

Troytempest

I agree with DQ. As a generalisation the difference between the private and public sectors is stark. 

Culturally an increasing proportion of the public sector seem to think they work very hard - they have no idea.

xylophone

Culturally an increasing proportion of the public sector seem to think they work very hard - they have no idea.

The DVLA .....

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/dvla-complaints-soar-passports-held-hostage/