Pension fund delays are appalling - MP

Dame Harriet Baldwin said the continued delays at West Midlands Pension Fund were "absolutely shocking"

An MP has said a pension fund's continued delays to retired public sector workers are appalling and "cannot be allowed to continue".

Last year, the BBC reported that thousands of recently retired West Midlands Pension Fund (WMPF) members were facing long delays in receiving their payments.

The fund, based in Wolverhampton, administers the pensions for employees and retirees of more than 800 organisations in the West Midlands.

Conservative MP for West Worcestershire, Dame Harriet Baldwin, said the fund needed "to get their act together".

The WMPF has said the installation of a new computer software system in July 2023 caused more than a year of delays.

Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers, including council staff, have their retirement funds invested in the scheme.

In a letter written to the WMPF, Sandwell Unison and Sandwell Council said some staff members were waiting six months to receive their pension, which created "huge hardship issues".

Baldwin told BBC Politics Midlands: "This is a winter in which some of the pensioners on the lowest pension incomes are not going to get their winter fuel allowance, and to compound that with a situation where they're not even getting their second pension is absolutely shocking.

"They need to get it sorted and anyone who's affected needs to get in touch with someone in authority who can get the payment backdated as quickly as possible."

Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull, Liam Byrne, said the situation "isn't good enough" and "needs to be fixed pronto".

Liam Byrne: "The bottom line is this isn't good enough"

Speaking on BBC Politics Midlands, he said: "It's bad. You can't have people being put into this position.

"The bottom line is this isn't good enough."

Mr Byrne said he had spoken to the chairman of the fund, who "assured me they're exercising every effort to get it done."

The MP added that the minister for local government, Jim McMahon, was due to visit the fund this week "to try and get to the bottom of what is happening".

He also told the BBC that he believed the delays were due to a "couple of problems" including IT and glitches with employers inputting information.

The BBC has spoken to two recently bereaved women who have been impacted by problems at WMPF.

The organisation has now apologised to the women, stating the delays were "unacceptable" and it took full responsibility for the poor service they had received.