Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967
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Parliamentary Ombudsman
State earnings-related pension scheme (SERPS) inheritance provisions
Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967
I am laying before Parliament under section 10(4) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 this report, which contains the results of my investigations into four individual complaints that the Department of Social Security (DSS) and then the Benefits Agency (BA), an executive agency of DSS which in April 1991 took over responsibility for the administration of state pensions, gave misleading and inadequate information about changes introduced by the Social Security Act 1986 which affected the inheritance rules of the state earnings-related pension scheme (SERPS) on and after 6 April 2000. The report also contains my wider conclusions on the issue. I received 344 such individual complaints in total, referred to me by 170 Members of Parliament. The complainants' essential assertion was that they would have made different and more appropriate provisions to secure the position of their surviving spouse in the event of their own death on or after 6 April 2000 had they been aware of the true position. The four individual cases investigated were chosen as a representative sample of all those complaints.
For reasons explained in the report, although I have found that DSS and BA were guilty of maladministration, I cannot at this stage do more than offer some general comments on the issue of redress. Nevertheless, I judge that it will be of assistance to Parliament and the public if I publish now the facts that have been established by my investigations. I intend to publish a further report, dealing more fully with the issue of redress, when circumstances permit.
