HEY DUDE,WHERE'S MY PENSION? :Episode 1

 And so it begins,,

I received a letter from the DWP - dated 5 August - on August 12.All their official postal correspondence is sent second class post.

Having seemingly completed all necessary formalities weeks earlier regarding my State Pension claim, this was I assumed a final confirmation of the information I had given them.

Besides my hand written details that I'd previously provided them with such Credit Union acc.no.etc,It turns out that they require a copy of my marriage cert. and a copy of the Decree Absolute,without which they cannot complete my Pension claim.

Within an hour of reading their letter,I phoned and immediately emailed both the Wakefield Register Office and The Civil Justice Centre to ascertain what needed doing.

The Register office responded by email the next day with what I needed to do - £11 for a 5 working days turnaround  search + £2.50 postage. IL paid for it via Card on the online form.

On Monday  August 16 I phoned the CJC to see what progress my email was making.They checked their 7 day backlog of emails received to confirm receipt. I phoned them again on the 17th.where they took  quite a lot longer to retrieve my email.Their backlog had not shortened.During both calls I was given to understand that once they got round to dealing with my email they would after their search contact me via phone for payment.

On Friday 20th.after a third call to CJC,yet another different " Colleague" informed me authoritatively that I ought to have been told straightaway that the £10/£45?£65 search fee is payable upfront.That person apologised and I managed to persuade them to include their apology for their earlier misinformation in an email.Which they did at close of business on the 20th.

£10 if I knew the Decree absolute's original Case Ref No. ,£45 if I didn't but I was certain that either Wakefield or Pontefract County Court issued it or £65 if I am unsure and would have to apply via Central Index in London.Oh yes and the apologetic email of the 20th had a pdf attached with Form 440 which is how you apply to Central Index.

Today,being Monday 23, IL kindly downloaded the 4 pages of Form440 and have agreed to pay the £65 CQ which I hope to be mailing out first class in a couple of days time.The Central Index turnaround time is 10 working days.

By the way, that DWP letter dated the 5th which I got on the 12th.They enclosed a 2nd class reply envelope;asking for all the necessary docs to be enclosed and sent to them forthwith -their explicit demand by no later than August 19.Otherwise there'd be delays processing my Pension claim.

and so it goes...