Written question asked by Lord Laird (Ulster Unionist Party), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Freud (Conservative) on Monday, 31 October 2011.

Pensions

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Freud on 12 October (WA 244), whether in the light of the statement in the questionnaire sent by the Pension Service to those in receipt of a United Kingdom pension resident in the Republic of Ireland, deposited in the Library of the House under reference DEP2011–1005 on 16 June 2011, that ““if we do not hear from you we may have to carry out further checks to ensure we can still make payments to you””, they will now carry out such checks on the 4.4 per cent of non-respondents.

Answer: Information is no longer held on those customers who did not respond, and further action is therefore not possible. Information on the scrutiny of the non-respondents is also not held. However, if correspondence had been returned by the postal services, indicating that the customer was not at the address held, normal practice would have been to investigate further to establish whether payments could continue.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 12528; 731 c214WA
Session: 2010-12
Related items: Pensions
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects: British nationals abroad Health services Pensioners Reciprocal arrangements Republic of Ireland Questionnaires
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk