State pension payments still delayed for thousands

Thousands of newly-retired people are still yet to receive their first state pension payments after a deadline for backlogs in payments to be cleared.

Most delayed pensions to people who have just turned 66 are now being paid following a catch-up exercise by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

But applications have yet to be processed for 4,900 people from whom the DWP has asked for extra details.

The pandemic and staffing issues were blamed for problems over the summer.

Many thousands of people did not receive their state pension entitlement on time, owing to the administration issues at the DWP.

Some told the BBC of their distress, financial strain, and frustration at the problems.

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Pensions minister Guy Opperman told MPs earlier this year that hundreds of department staff were being redeployed to deal with the backlog in state pension payments.

He promised them that the system would be back to normal by the end of October.

Now, the DWP has said that there were still 4,900 pension claims which had required officials to contact customers, and more information was required before processing would be completed.

"We are sorry that some new customers have faced delays receiving their state pension," said a DWP spokesman.

"We have now issued all outstanding payments and are in contact with those customers where more information is required in order to complete processing."