INSURANCE—NATIONAL AND PRIVATE SIR,—On February 11th you published a letter
from Mr. Anthony Kiely complaining that nearly ten months after his father's death on April 26th of last year his mother was still waiting for her widow's pension. The facts of the case have been investigated and are as follows: The first intimation to the Department of the death was in a letter of August 9th to the Department's office at Newcastle-on-Tyne (which was not then concerned with claims for widows' pensions) from Mrs. Kiely's solicitors enclosing a stamped insurance card. This letter stated that the widow had not previously been aware of her late husband's insurance as a volun- tary contributor, and asked whether in the circumstances a claim could be admitted from the date of death. There is no doubt that this letter was received in the office of the Department to which it was addressed and the card enclosed with it was recorded properly. The letter itself, however, appears to have gone astray, and for this I must express regret. The solicitors wrote again on October 12th; this letter was immediately transferred to the local National Insurance Office at Harrow who sent the solicitors a claim form on October 20th. The Local Office sent them a reminder on November 4th, but it was not until December 6th that they received a claim dated November 30th. Mrs. Kiely's pension is now in payment, and for this purpose in the exceptional circumstances the solicitors' original enquiry of August 9th has been accepted as the date of claim.
The Ministry is anxious to deal promptly with claims for National Insurance benefits, and especially those provided for widows, but insured persons must also play their part. Claims for widow's benefit should be made as soon as possible to the nearest Local Office of the Department on claim forms which may be obtained from them or at any Post Office. Where a claim is properly made in this way the average time for putting widow's allowance into payment is now two and a half weeks.—Yours
sincerely, R. G. S. HOARE, Ministry of National Insurance, Chief Information Officer.
Public Relations Division, 6 Canton House Terrace, S.W.r:
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