Trudy Baddams
[various) @whatdotheyknow.com
21 May 2019
FOI 2019/04305
FOI 2019/09686
FOI 2019/09691
FOI 2019/10695
FOI 2019/11724
FOI 2019/13053
FOI 2019/13179
FOI 2019/15715
Dear Trudy Baddams
Thank you for your Freedom of Information requests received on various dates between 30
January 2019 and 17 April 2019. You asked:
FOI2019/04305
Government state there were adverts in newspapers and
magazines about women’s pension age increase, can you please
supply names please?
I.e. What newspapers and magazines carried these advertorials
and when?
FOI 2019/09686
Government keep stating that letters were sent out to ALL those
affected by the state pension age increase.
Can you please tell me which Member of Parliament instigated
this for the 1995 and 2011 Act?
Can you please tell me which department of government were
responsible for sending these letters (for both Acts)?
Can you also please tell me the job title of the person responsible
for overseeing the mail shot?
FOI 2019/09691
Can you tell me what newspaper supplements the advertorial for
women's state pension age appeared in?
Can you also tell me what magazines were used to advertise this
fact?
FOI 2019/10695
The Hansard report stated that DWP should learn from their
previous mistakes and give 10 years notice for every 1 year
pension age increase, how many letters has the DWP sent to
men who are seeing their pension age increase by 1 year? And
when were these sent?
FOI 2019/11724
Andrea Leadsom stated that women had received 7 years notice
of the women's state pension increase, can you please confirm
how many years notice 1950's born women actually received
about this increase.
FOI 2019/13053 It has been stated that automated pension forecasts were sent to
women regarding their pensions, can you please tell me when
these were sent, how many, and did the forecast contain pension
age?
Could you attach a copy of the forecast please
FOI 2019/13179
Your response to my FOI FOI2018/11986 but we need
clarification:
"To clarify, mailings undertaken as part of a communication
research project have been included in the above table"
please clarify what this research project is and how many letters
this includes so we can achieve a true figure of how many letters
were sent to women affected by pension age increase
Whilst you have provided us with certain photos and links to
FOI 2019/15715
newspapers regarding pension age equalisation, it would appear
that the information may have been in other newspapers. can you
please clarify which newspapers carried this information and
which magazines carried this information
The Department has decided that Section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA) applies on this occasion to the requests listed above. Accordingly, we will not be
responding to those requests.
Under section 14(1) of FOIA, public authorities are not obliged to comply with requests
which are vexatious.
A request may be treated as vexatious for a number of reasons. For example, if compliance
would create a significant burden in terms of expense and distraction; if a request is
designed to cause disruption or annoyance; if a request can otherwise fairly be
characterised as obsessive or manifestly unreasonable; if the request does not have any
serious purpose or value.
By way of clarification it is the request that is treated as vexatious not the person making
the request. An individual can make multiple requests and each is considered on its own
merits.
Whether a request is vexatious is assessed with reference to all the circumstances of an
individual case. In this case, the department is treating the requests listed above as
vexatious.
Whilst we accept that the requests relate to issues in which the general public has a
legitimate interest, the government’s position in relation to changes to State Pension age
has already been the subject of considerable public and parliamentary scrutiny and you
have previously made many requests on this subject.
Parliament has published several comprehensive briefing papers and select committee
reports and the government has also commissioned two independent reports to inform its
first review of State Pension age, which was completed in July 2017. Furthermore, there
have been parliamentary debates to which government Ministers have contributed,
ministerial statements and responses to parliamentary questions. All of these are available
in the public domain and we have included some helpful links here to relevant documents:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmworpen/899/899.pdf
http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06546/SN06546.pdf
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attach
ment_data/file/611460/independent-review-of-the-state-pension-age-smoothing-the-
transition.pdf
http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7405/CBP-7405.pdf
http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06546/SN06546.pdf
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-02-08/debates/5DB1E4AA-31EF-
443C-9557-E5ED4968B8DC/StatePensionAge
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2017-11-29/debates/721D593D-7E54-
4E69-ADCB-CBCA73618FCD/StatePensionAgeWomen
http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN02234/SN02234.pdf
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-11-30/debates/6D16B51A-12D7-4614-
89AA-6A016F71600A/StatePensionAgeWomen
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmworpen/899/89902.htm
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-11-15/debates/DFB796DF-B853-
47C8-AFEE-BA4EDC037EF7/StatePensionAgeWomen
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2016-01-
07/debates/16010722000001/StatePensionAge(Women)
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2015-12-
02/debates/15120250000001/StatePensionAgeEqualisation
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-02-
01/debates/16020126000001/TransitionalStatePensionArrangementsForWomen
This represents a sample of the level of public scrutiny to which the government’s policies
on State Pension age have already been subject to. In addition, the Department has
received and replied to over 40 other FOI requests from you related to State Pensions.
The department is committed to transparency and openness and accepts that involves
absorbing a reasonable level of disruption and administrative burden.
However, the Department believes there is no clear objective to your requests for a number
of reasons including the following;
the number and frequency of your requests;
the lack of clarity in terms of what recorded information they are trying to obtain;
the fact they often overlap;
they regularly request information already in the public domain as well as information
we have already provided to you;
each response from the Department results in further requests.
Subsequently, regardless of intention, we consider that each of the requests causes a
disproportionate and unjustified level of disruption to officials who are responsible for
responding to them, placing an unreasonable burden on the department for no clear
purpose.
You may also find the Information Commissioner’s comprehensive guidance on section
14(1) of FOIA useful, which can be found he
re: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-
organisations/documents/1198/dealing-with-vexatious-requests.pdf
Section 17 (6) of the FOI Act states that there is no need for public authorities to issue a
refusal notice if they have already given the same person a refusal notice for a previous
vexatious request and it would be unreasonable to issue another one. We are classing this
letter as a refusal notice under Section 17 (6) of the FOI Act. You should therefore be
aware that any further vexatious requests from you will not receive any response.
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me quoting the reference number
above.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Central FoI Team
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Your right to complain under the Freedom of Information Act
If you are not happy with this response you may request an internal review by e-mailing
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xxx.xx or by writing to DWP, Central FoI Team,
Caxton House, Tothill Street, SW1H 9NA. Any review request should be submitted within
two months of the date of this letter.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review you may apply directly to the
Information Commissioner’s Office for a decision. Generally the Commissioner cannot
make a decision unless you have exhausted our own complaints procedure. The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF
www.ico.org.uk/Global/contact_us or telephone 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745