Trevor Chainey: ‘I honestly think this “working from home” culture is the root of the problem’
A retired heating engineer forced to wait six months for his state pension ended up being owed almost £7,000 by the Department for Work and Pensions.
It is the third case of late payments to people turning 66 that we have exposed in the past fortnight.
Trevor Chainey (pictured right) told us: ‘I am a patient man but this is getting a bit silly. It’s running down my savings.’
Like with our other two readers, the DWP has apologised and blamed an administrative error for the delay to starting his state pension on time.
Mr Chainey applied in advance last October, and because he is a widower also sent his marriage certificate as requested by the DWP well before a mid-December deadline.
He will now receive around £290 a week, above the standard new state pension rate of £221, probably because he inherited a large amount of second state pension from his late wife.
In a case we published a week ago, a 66-year-old had waited three months for his state pension to start and told us his pleas for help to DWP staff were ignored.
A hostel worker who helped drug users before his retirement, he has more lately cared for his poorly wife.
He was overpaid carer’s allowance for several weeks after his 66th birthday, though this wasn’t identified as the cause of delay by the DWP.
Two weeks ago, we ran a story about an NHS nurse who had to put her retirement plans on hold and keep taking shifts because the DWP failed to start paying her state pension.
After we intervened, she got her state pension and also had a previous payment for top-ups refunded.
But again, the DWP didn’t give this as the reason for the hold-up in starting her pension after she turned 66.
Other readers have sent us complaints about waiting to getting their state pension started, and our investigation is ongoing – details of how to contact us are below.
Starting in autumn 2022 and lasting until well into 2023, we reported many cases of hardship because the DWP didn’t start paying people on time when they reached state pension age.
The state pension normally starts being paid in arrears four weeks after your 66th birthday, providing you claim it.
Although there is no definite pattern to the current delays yet, it appears 66-year-olds with any type of issue outside of the norm are more likely to get stuck in a backlog. Expats also tend to have to wait longer.
Meanwhile, widows or widowers who inherit second state pension or SERPS from late spouses in their own payments on reaching 66 are far from uncommon.
> Will you inherit any state pension from your late husband or wife
Mr Chainey, who lost his wife in 2017, was a heating engineer in the gas and oil industry before his retirement and lives in Dorset.
He contacted us about his six-month wait for his state pension after reading our story last week, and said: ‘I have not received any state pension entitlement at all.
‘I have phoned several times, but I get the impression it’s a waste of time. Phone calls might take an hour before you speak to someone, and then they don’t have a clue.
‘I have got money coming in that isn’t covering all my bills so I am topping up using my savings. Have I been forgotten? There is no communication. All I seem to get is promises.’
He told us when he recently met his financial adviser for an annual review, they told him he was not their only client waiting for their state pension. And having already heard this, seeing our story was the ‘final straw’ that made him get in touch with us.
After we flagged his case to the DWP and he received £6,920 in state pension arrears, Mr Chainey said: ‘I honestly think this “working from home” culture is the root of the problem and more professionalism needs to be applied.
‘I have no proof. But the DWP really need to sort themselves out.
‘In my case I got through the last six months due to savings and private pensions. I just hope that people not as lucky as me I have helped in some way by sharing my story.’
The DWP was asked for comment on Mr Chainey’s wait for his state pension, but it could not make a statement due to pre-election rules.
It apologised to him for the delay, which was due to an administrative error, and stressed that when errors occur it is committed to fixing them.
Former Pensions Minister and This is Money retirement columnist, Steve Webb, said: ‘You would hope that after a lifetime of contributions it should be a simple matter to claim the state pension you were due and to receive it promptly.
‘But even in this digital age, it seems that anyone who isn’t simply a “standard” claim is at risk of waiting for months and being out of pocket to the tune of thousands of pounds.’
Webb, who is now a partner at LCP, added: ‘Whoever ends up in charge of the Department in the coming days, they urgently need to put customer service at the top of their agenda, otherwise people will continue to have to do battle with DWP on a regular basis.’