Why haven’t my state pension payments started? 66-year-old man condemns DWP

A 66-year-old man has slammed the ‘Department for Work and No Pensions’ after he waited three months to receive his state pension and his pleas for help were ignored.

Dennis Haslam, pictured right, told us that the lack of income was causing him and his wife stress as they were forced to “put life on hold” and deplete their savings.

“I’m devastated and I don’t know where else to turn,” he said, after making fruitless calls to the DWP and making a formal complaint when his pension didn’t start.

‘I have called numerous times to the point of not calling again. The only thing that happens is that they tell me that it will be marked as urgent or prioritized.

“The only thing I’ve learned from the DWP is that they both mean the same thing: nothing gets done.”

Last week we reported that an NHS nurse was forced to put her retirement plans on hold and continue taking shifts because the DWP did not start paying her state pension when she turned 66.

Since then, readers have sent us more complaints about state pension problems and delays, and our investigation is ongoing; Details on how to contact us are below.

From autumn 2022 and well into 2023, we reported many cases of hardship because the DWP did not start paying people on time when they reached state pension age.

Haslam lives in South Yorkshire and worked in hostels helping drug users before retiring.

His wife has health problems and he claims the DWP wrongly continued to pay her care allowance for five and a half weeks after she reached state pension age.

He contacted an independent DWP department to try to find out how much was owed and repay that money, as well as claim back his state pension payments, but said he got nowhere on that front too.

“If this were a private company, I would expect some kind of compensation and an apology. Since this is a government department, I don’t expect either,” he told us.

‘I also made a complaint almost three weeks ago and was told it would take up to 15 days to respond. This time has also passed.

‘In the last call, on June 5, they promised me a phone call, but again nothing.

‘We have to live off the limited savings we have and we have had to put life on hold, which is not good at our age.

‘Perhaps without realizing it I am dealing with the DWNP. That’s the Department of Work and No Pensions.

Former Pensions Minister and This is Money retirement columnist Steve Webb said: “One of the most distressing things about trying to resolve the problems with DWP is the way people are repeatedly promised over the phone that Cases will be investigated urgently, but nothing seems to happen.

“At best, cases seem to be at the end of a very long queue, but if you don’t have income, it can feel like life is completely on hold and you just don’t know what’s going on.”

Webb, who is now a partner at LCP, added: “Whoever is in charge of the DWP after the next election must put improving customer service at the heart of their priorities for the department.”

The DWP was asked to comment on the delay to Haslam’s state pension but was unable to comment due to pre-election rules.

After we flagged his case, he received arrears of around £1,800, which were offset by overpayments made for carer’s allowance and pension credit.

The DWP apologized for the delay, which was due to an administrative error, and stressed that when errors occur it is committed to correcting them.

Mr Haslam replied: “Administrative errors cover up a multitude of sins. Another way of saying they have screwed everything up.”

You have already received your arrears, but are still waiting for these payments and future state pension payments to be broken down by letter.

If you qualify and claim a state pension on time, you should start paying it in arrears four weeks after turning 66.

If your payments do not arrive after that, details of how to contact us are in the box above.