Last week, I challenged a Labour MP on whether or not they understood the hypocrisy in speaking about charity work to help people in need this Christmas after they voted to remove the winter fuel payment, leaving millions going cold this festive period.
Their response was as baffling as it was revealing. “I am helping my constituents but of those that are eligible, only 60% have taken up pension credit,” they insisted, the insinuation, in my eyes, being that nearly half of those losing the payment were not hard up enough to bother to apply.
I hit back that that could be to do with the convoluted means by which elderly, often computer illiterate people, had to apply, to which they had little response. My response was borne out of things I had heard rather than what I had investigated for myself and so I figured, I probably should.
So today, I carried out the application process all the way up to the point of submission and after doing so, my response to the MP might have been one of shock that the take up was as high as it is.
The paper application form – a means by which many of those eligible would feel most comfortable applying – is not for the faint-hearted. A 225-question questionnaire that feels almost like a test of stamina rather than an application for help.
I decided to take the online version and thus was automatically directed to the relevant questions based on my previous answers – but it still took me a little over 10 minutes to get through the 53 questions I was asked.
There are, of course, a few caveats. Firstly, I did so as if I lived with a spouse meaning that there were several duplicate questions but for the vast majority, I answered « no » when asked if I was in receipt of other benefits or had other means of income, which would inevitably have led to further interrogation had I answered « yes ».
Secondly, I went through the process without the fear of getting a question wrong, which meant I didn’t have to double check answers which undoubtedly allowed me to wade through quicker than I might have.
Additionally, the time it took me does not factor in the time it would take somebody to gather all the relevant information they are told they require prior to starting the process.
Crucially, I am in my early thirties. I have grown up in an age of computers and as a journalist I use them daily. Like Liam Neeson in ‘Taken’ I have “a particular set of skills” to equip me for this digital bureaucratic minefield that is applying for Pension Credit – and it is highly conceivable that some people of pension age might not possess the IT literacy of many people my age.
The application process is as tedious as it is laborious. Questions topics include applicant details, partner details, time spent in hospital, housing details, other people that live with you, benefits, employment and income, money, applicant’s residency in the UK, partner’s residency in the UK and contact details.
It feels too much. And the one thing that enraged me more than anything is that it feels as if it is purposely confusing and overly tiresome – as if it is in some way making it so difficult that it ensures that only the desperate will make it through.
By very nature, Pension Credit is designed to help those in society who are worse off. These might be people with no internet access, no digital devices or a multitude of other factors which limit their ability to make it through the hellish application process.
Admittedly, there is a phone number to help those who cannot complete the application online and I decided to give it a go but that was just as bad as the online application.
The first five minutes consisted of an automated voice persuading me to apply online, the very thing people calling are trying to avoid. Inevitably, the voice informed me that they were “experiencing a high-volume of calls.”
Do these helplines ever claim to be anything other than stupidly busy? Perhaps my next article might focus on a rare case study of a person who managed to find an unheard of time of “low-volume calls” to one of these cost-cutting irritations.
In all, I spent more than 17 minutes waiting to speak to a human being whose job it is to help people apply for a benefit they are entitled to.
Some might say, it could have been worse, and perhaps they are correct. But that is 17 minutes of essentially being told to go back and do the one thing you’re calling because you cannot do it.
So when those justifying the removal of the payment point to the low take up of pension credit, bear in mind that 255 paper based questions, digital illiteracy and poor human interaction might just be the factors influencing that rather than a sign that people simply do not need the help.
Those eligible for pension credit must apply before December 21 to ensure they receive the winter fuel payment this year.
