Sir Julian Lewis: I will share with the House one particular case that is representative of many. My constituent, Mrs Gillian Pothecary, lost her husband almost a year ago. She wrote to me in July about her valiant but so far unavailing quest to obtain a civil service widow’s pension. She wrote:

“Throughout this process, I have been given differing information about the status of my claim … More recently, I was told that I was at the top of the list for assessment, only to then be informed that some of my paperwork had become out of date and needed to be resubmitted, causing further delay.”

I was very impressed to get a reply, when I forwarded this on, from someone holding the exalted position of deputy director of civil service and Royal Mail pensions in the Cabinet Office. She said:

“Mrs Pothecary’s … case falls under the commitment to be fully resolved by early September at the absolute latest. Capita has assured me that her case is on their escalation log and has been flagged for priority handling.”

I rang up Gill just before coming into this debate and – you’ve guessed it, Dame Siobhain – she has not yet received her pension. She is now dipping into her savings and working longer hours at the supermarket.

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[NOTE: This one-hour Debate in Westminster Hall was attended by so many MPs with similarly shocking cases to report that time-limits on speeches of one or one-and-a-half minutes had to be imposed.]