Thousands of older people could be owed payouts from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) after a new State Pension communication failure has come to light, the Daily Record is reporting.
The damning findings follow a Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) investigation that exposed the DWP’s persistent failure to inform pensioners properly about crucial alterations to their State Pension, leaving many vulnerable individuals financially worse off and unnecessarily stressed.
The DWP: yet ANOTHER state pension scandal
The latest scandal centres on the case of 82-year-old Adrian Furnival, a British ex-pat living in Brittany, France.
Adrian and his wife Sheila moved there in 1994, only to discover in 2018—in the annual DWP uprating letter—that, from 2020, he would no longer receive the Adult Dependency Increase (ADI). This payment is a vital DWP supplement designed for households where the main earner reaches State Pension age, but their partner has not yet done so.
Losing ADI means Adrian faced a staggering cut of more than £3,000 per year, or over £250 a month, hitting his retirement income hard.
Shockingly, DWP changes to ADI were announced back in 2010 to those living in the UK. However, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s inquiry revealed that the DWP failed spectacularly to communicate these changes to Adrian and potentially thousands of others living abroad. In fact, the DWP should have informed him in April 2010 but did not do so until nearly a decade later, in 2018.
The Ombudsman also condemned the DWP for dragging its feet when Adrian raised concerns, pointing out that the Department “failed to respond to his initial queries and complaints in a timely way.” The repercussions for Adrian were severe: not only did he lose out financially, but the lack of clear communication caused him significant distress during his retirement years.
Poor communication – yet again
Following the investigation, the PHSO demanded that the DWP apologise to Adrian and pay him £675 in compensation for the injustice he endured. Moreover, the Ombudsman has recommended that the DWP must offer “a comparable remedy to anyone who approaches the Department in a similar situation,” signalling that thousands more pensioners could be entitled to redress.
Rebecca Hilsenrath, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, said:
Poor communication from Government departments damages trust in public services. DWP has a history of failing to communicate pension policy changes clearly and failing to learn from its mistakes. In Adrian’s case, this meant that, without the right information, he lost the opportunity to prepare for his retirement. It also caused him unnecessary financial worry.
Addressing the wider implications, Hilsenrath urged anyone who believes they have had similar experiences to contact the DWP immediately.
In May 2019, just a year before ADI payments ended, the DWP informed Parliament that 10,817 people were still receiving ADI support overseas, a clear indication that this issue may impact a significant number of pensioners living abroad.
The communication failures uncovered are a part of a long-standing series of blunders by the DWP.
Perpetual chaos at the DWP – not least with the state pension
Just last December, the Department accepted maladministration findings by the PHSO related to how it handled State Pension age changes for women born in the 1950s – the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign. Despite this, the DWP and Labour Party government declined to set up a compensation scheme for those affected, sparking further outrage among claimants left in financial limbo through no fault of their own.
The PHSO has called on the government to ensure all pension-related communications are “always fair, clear, and consistent.” However, the repeated delays, errors, and dismissive attitude toward claimants raise serious questions about the Department’s commitment to delivering this promise.
For pensioners, disabled people, and non-working people, these failings by the DWP add insult to injury.
Many depend wholly on accurate and timely information about their entitlements to plan their lives and manage their limited income. The repeated neglect and poor communication only deepen the hardship faced by some of society’s most vulnerable people.
The DWP remains under scrutiny as more cases come to light. Currently, those who believe they have been affected by similar State Pension or ADI issues are urged to contact the Pension Service, with full details available on gov.uk
While the DWP has pledged to learn lessons and work with the Ombudsman on an action plan, the true measure of progress will be in whether claimants finally receive the respect, compensation, and clear information they deserve, ending these ongoing injustices once and for all.
Featured image via the Canary
