Non-motoring > State Pension error - 8 page letter! Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Falkirk Bairn Replies: 4
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 Thu 5 May 16 18:26 
 State Pension error - 8 page letter! - Falkirk Bairn
An 8 page letter about my State pension arrived today.

Apparently they had miscalculated my OAP - on line 2 it stated my pension had been recalculated and would be £XXX.yy...........I actually receive £30 per week more through Serps, S2P etc etc.

It was only later I noticed they refererred the £XXX to 2011. Nowhere did it say how much / little the error had been or whether it was in my favour or there's.

Hung on the phone for some 10 mins - the person who answered was very thorough & the INCREASE in my pension would be 23p per week (2011) + inflation backdated 4+ years. So I can look forward to <30p per week & a one-off payment of ~£75.

8 pages telling me nothing when 8 lines apologising, giving the total underpayment & my new State Pension increasing by ~30p per week would have been sufficient.

I have written to complain about the content / standard of the letter, the 8 pages & the fact that it told me nothing! I await a reply in due course.

They say the EU bureaucracy is appalling, I would like to nominate the DWP!
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 Thu 5 May 16 19:06 
 State Pension error - 8 page letter! - Alastairw
Despite being one of the first government depts to computerise DWP hasn't really moved with times. The result is letters like yours, which will have been stiched together from various templates with very little human intervention. Their system is so outdated that NI adjustments are still dealt with manually, and still don't properly integrate with self assessment, which has now been around for 19 years.
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 Thu 5 May 16 22:04 
 State Pension error - 8 page letter! - Bromptonaut
Pretty much what Alastair says.

I have, I hope, above average literacy/comprehension. Have also been trained in benefits and understand both legalese and governmentese.

Still need to work hard to interpret benefit entitlement/refusal letters in hands of folks punting up at Cit Adv.
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 Thu 5 May 16 23:03 
 State Pension error - 8 page letter! - Falkirk Bairn
They were telling me that there was a recalculation my State pension.
They told me the NEW Pension for Oct 2011 - they did not give me the old figure - they did not tell me the 2016 value.

On the phone they told me I was about 30p better off per week & £75 in a lump sum for "back pay".

Nowhere on the letter did they say increase or decrease or give 2016 figures.

There were threats of reclaiming overpayments. They said I had to tell them if my circumstances changed - I am a "well off pensioner" according to the average, so receive the basic pension PLUS Serps, 2SP etc etc but no benefits - my payments are rights NOT benefits.

8 Pages - Paragraph after paragraph of verbal "civil service diahorrea / Jargon / threats etc etc"

I await a reply & then plan to tackle the minister in charge (IDS's replacement - whoever he/she is) - an anonymous figure that did not register with me as he/she appeared on TV/papers.
Last edited by: Falkirk Bairn on Thu 5 May 16 at 23:04
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 Fri 6 May 16 08:16 
 State Pension error - 8 page letter! - Cliff Pope
. They said I had to tell them if my
>> circumstances changed -
>>

I've had that letter. It is a standard one intended for recipients of means--tested benefits, which state pension is not.
It is a nonsense - they don't really want all pensioners to constantly notify them of all changes in their circumstances, and would be inundated if people actually acted on what this letter asks.
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