The utter disgrace and scandal of DWP and the near-impossibility of getting advice on topping up

eskbanker

Silvertabby said:

Seems next Tuesday's Martin Lewis money show will include an update on bumping up the State pension by paying for 'missing years'.

I would suggest that anyone who knows  that they need to make payments for missing years up to 2016/17 tries their best to get through on Monday or Tuesday.  After that, the lines will be clogged - again - by people simply acting under FOMO (fear of missing out).

Whereas many weary posters on here are simply Fed-up Of Martin's Oversimplifying....

molerat

Silvertabby said:

Seems next Tuesday's Martin Lewis money show will include an update on bumping up the State pension by paying for 'missing years'.

I would suggest that anyone who knows  that they need to make payments for missing years up to 2016/17 tries their best to get through on Monday or Tuesday.  After that, the lines will be clogged - again - by people simply acting under FOMO (fear of missing out).

I have just posted in another thread where the already retired person has been trying to contact DWP to discuss filling their pre 2016 years gaps which unfortunately would make no difference to their pension.  I wonder what percentage of the calls fall into that category.

molerat

eskbanker said:

Silvertabby said:

Seems next Tuesday's Martin Lewis money show will include an update on bumping up the State pension by paying for 'missing years'.

I would suggest that anyone who knows  that they need to make payments for missing years up to 2016/17 tries their best to get through on Monday or Tuesday.  After that, the lines will be clogged - again - by people simply acting under FOMO (fear of missing out).

Whereas many weary posters on here are simply Fed-up Of Martin's Oversimplifying....

I was watching BBC Morning Live last Monday and needing the magic 35 years was quoted with no caveats whatsoever and also simply referred to checking and filling gaps. Absolutely awful journalism from their "financial expert".  https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001mp47/morning-live-series-5-05062023  from 4 minutes in

german_keeper

The frustrating thing is that a carefully prepared piece giving a decent amount of clarity would probably only take a few minutes. But Mr Lewis seems to wear his ability to get government phone lines and websites into meltdown as a badge of honour. 

SwiftSuzie

german_keeper said:

The frustrating thing is that a carefully prepared piece giving a decent amount of clarity would probably only take a few minutes. But Mr Lewis seems to wear his ability to get government phone lines and websites into meltdown as a badge of honour. 

Sadly true. He does so much good work but seems not to appreciate the real problems he's causing with this for no good reason. It's preventing people who absolutely have to get through because their pension date is imminent a great deal of stress, and staff I've spoken to are at the end of their tether. Some show it more than others in their manner with callers. I managed to sort my own situation out, hopefully, and I'm very grateful for the advice in this forum which saved me a lot of money. I do think though that a few caveats from Martin to people advising when there is absolutely no point in calling before 31st July (if you check your record and have 35+ pre 2016 years for example) it might take the pressure off. So would an additional option on the phone lines giving dedicated operators to those within 6 months of their state pensìon date. At times when their are no such urgent callers those operators could revert to strengthen the general pool dealing with all comers.

Pat38493

SwiftSuzie said:

german_keeper said:

The frustrating thing is that a carefully prepared piece giving a decent amount of clarity would probably only take a few minutes. But Mr Lewis seems to wear his ability to get government phone lines and websites into meltdown as a badge of honour. 

Sadly true. He does so much good work but seems not to appreciate the real problems he's causing with this for no good reason. It's preventing people who absolutely have to get through because their pension date is imminent a great deal of stress, and staff I've spoken to are at the end of their tether. Some show it more than others in their manner with callers. I managed to sort my own situation out, hopefully, and I'm very grateful for the advice in this forum which saved me a lot of money. I do think though that a few caveats from Martin to people advising when there is absolutely no point in calling before 31st July (if you check your record and have 35+ pre 2016 years for example) it might take the pressure off. So would an additional option on the phone lines giving dedicated operators to those within 6 months of their state pensìon date. At times when their are no such urgent callers those operators could revert to strengthen the general pool dealing with all comers.

This ^^  it's been my impression for a while that these lines must be partly clogged up by people who actually have no reason to call before the 31st July deadline.

He could also direct people to this board! 

eastcorkram

Pat38493 said:

SwiftSuzie said:

german_keeper said:

The frustrating thing is that a carefully prepared piece giving a decent amount of clarity would probably only take a few minutes. But Mr Lewis seems to wear his ability to get government phone lines and websites into meltdown as a badge of honour. 

Sadly true. He does so much good work but seems not to appreciate the real problems he's causing with this for no good reason. It's preventing people who absolutely have to get through because their pension date is imminent a great deal of stress, and staff I've spoken to are at the end of their tether. Some show it more than others in their manner with callers. I managed to sort my own situation out, hopefully, and I'm very grateful for the advice in this forum which saved me a lot of money. I do think though that a few caveats from Martin to people advising when there is absolutely no point in calling before 31st July (if you check your record and have 35+ pre 2016 years for example) it might take the pressure off. So would an additional option on the phone lines giving dedicated operators to those within 6 months of their state pensìon date. At times when their are no such urgent callers those operators could revert to strengthen the general pool dealing with all comers.

This ^^  it's been my impression for a while that these lines must be partly clogged up by people who actually have no reason to call before the 31st July deadline.

He could also direct people to this board! 

I don't think that the number of calls will drop much after the July 31st. 
Deadline may have passed but that won't stop people ringing up.

Silvertabby

eastcorkram said:

Pat38493 said:

SwiftSuzie said:

german_keeper said:

The frustrating thing is that a carefully prepared piece giving a decent amount of clarity would probably only take a few minutes. But Mr Lewis seems to wear his ability to get government phone lines and websites into meltdown as a badge of honour. 

Sadly true. He does so much good work but seems not to appreciate the real problems he's causing with this for no good reason. It's preventing people who absolutely have to get through because their pension date is imminent a great deal of stress, and staff I've spoken to are at the end of their tether. Some show it more than others in their manner with callers. I managed to sort my own situation out, hopefully, and I'm very grateful for the advice in this forum which saved me a lot of money. I do think though that a few caveats from Martin to people advising when there is absolutely no point in calling before 31st July (if you check your record and have 35+ pre 2016 years for example) it might take the pressure off. So would an additional option on the phone lines giving dedicated operators to those within 6 months of their state pensìon date. At times when their are no such urgent callers those operators could revert to strengthen the general pool dealing with all comers.

This ^^  it's been my impression for a while that these lines must be partly clogged up by people who actually have no reason to call before the 31st July deadline.

He could also direct people to this board! 

I don't think that the number of calls will drop much after the July 31st. 
Deadline may have passed but that won't stop people ringing up.

Bets on the deadline being extended - again - due to the number of people who haven't been able to get through?

p00hsticks

Silvertabby said:

eastcorkram said:

Pat38493 said:

SwiftSuzie said:

german_keeper said:

The frustrating thing is that a carefully prepared piece giving a decent amount of clarity would probably only take a few minutes. But Mr Lewis seems to wear his ability to get government phone lines and websites into meltdown as a badge of honour. 

Sadly true. He does so much good work but seems not to appreciate the real problems he's causing with this for no good reason. It's preventing people who absolutely have to get through because their pension date is imminent a great deal of stress, and staff I've spoken to are at the end of their tether. Some show it more than others in their manner with callers. I managed to sort my own situation out, hopefully, and I'm very grateful for the advice in this forum which saved me a lot of money. I do think though that a few caveats from Martin to people advising when there is absolutely no point in calling before 31st July (if you check your record and have 35+ pre 2016 years for example) it might take the pressure off. So would an additional option on the phone lines giving dedicated operators to those within 6 months of their state pensìon date. At times when their are no such urgent callers those operators could revert to strengthen the general pool dealing with all comers.

This ^^  it's been my impression for a while that these lines must be partly clogged up by people who actually have no reason to call before the 31st July deadline.

He could also direct people to this board! 

I don't think that the number of calls will drop much after the July 31st. 
Deadline may have passed but that won't stop people ringing up.

Bets on the deadline being extended - again - due to the number of people who haven't been able to get through?

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that extending the deadline requires a change to legislation, and parliament goes into recess before the 31st July deadline expires. I'm not sure how much appetite there would be for trying to push through a further extension before then. . 

molerat

p00hsticks said:

Silvertabby said:

eastcorkram said:

Pat38493 said:

SwiftSuzie said:

german_keeper said:

The frustrating thing is that a carefully prepared piece giving a decent amount of clarity would probably only take a few minutes. But Mr Lewis seems to wear his ability to get government phone lines and websites into meltdown as a badge of honour. 

Sadly true. He does so much good work but seems not to appreciate the real problems he's causing with this for no good reason. It's preventing people who absolutely have to get through because their pension date is imminent a great deal of stress, and staff I've spoken to are at the end of their tether. Some show it more than others in their manner with callers. I managed to sort my own situation out, hopefully, and I'm very grateful for the advice in this forum which saved me a lot of money. I do think though that a few caveats from Martin to people advising when there is absolutely no point in calling before 31st July (if you check your record and have 35+ pre 2016 years for example) it might take the pressure off. So would an additional option on the phone lines giving dedicated operators to those within 6 months of their state pensìon date. At times when their are no such urgent callers those operators could revert to strengthen the general pool dealing with all comers.

This ^^  it's been my impression for a while that these lines must be partly clogged up by people who actually have no reason to call before the 31st July deadline.

He could also direct people to this board! 

I don't think that the number of calls will drop much after the July 31st. 
Deadline may have passed but that won't stop people ringing up.

Bets on the deadline being extended - again - due to the number of people who haven't been able to get through?

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that extending the deadline requires a change to legislation, and parliament goes into recess before the 31st July deadline expires. I'm not sure how much appetite there would be for trying to push through a further extension before then. . 

The current extension was passed into law on 13th March https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/309/contents/made

 I would expect any further extension would be passed before the expiry of the current