Tottenham pensioners left without cash - William MacDougall demands answers 04/09/04

Local Pensioners in distress after failure of pension payments - Conservative candidate write to Pensions Minister, Andrew Smith, MP.

Tottenham's Conservative Parliamentary Candidate William MacDougall has this week written to  Andrew Smith, the Government's Pensions Minister, demanding answers as to why more than a million pensioners were left without their pension payments earlier this week. In his letter MacDougall - a pensions consultant - wrote:

"Last week, many Haringey pensioners were unable to receive at the Post Office the pension payments that were due to them. This caused them great financial distress. I believe that you owe to them and to Parliament a full account of what exactly went wrong.

In particular, I'd be grateful if you could answer the following questions:

. How many pensioners were affected in Haringey?
. When did the computer system stop authorising payments, and at what time was normal service resumed?
. Was the breakdown triggered by next week's bank holiday?
. Can you assure pensioners that the new IT system will be able to handle bank holidays in the future?
. Did the system crash after some pensioners received four weeks' money instead of two? If so, how many pensioners fell into this category and what was the total value of overpaid benefits?
. Can you give a categorical assurance that these problems will not be repeated?

This incident raises fresh doubts about the new programme of pin codes and computerising pension payments. Surely you need a reliable back-up system in case of further problems.  Many pensioners in Tottenham have no savings and are totally reliant on their weekly pension to buy food and keep warm. Can you tell me what plans, if any, are in place to stop this from happening
again?"

ENDS.