To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to paragraph 14 of the report by the Comptroller and Auditor General on the National Insurance Fund Account 2003-04 (HC 197, 2004-05), what criteria were used to determine which people over state pension age should receive letters from his Department; and how many were (a) men and (b) women. (156402)

[holding answer 8 October 2007]: In the exercise that ran for 12 months from 27 September 2004 DWP wrote to pensioners who

reached state pension age between 6 April 1998 and 24 October 2004; and

were not receiving a full basic state pension in their own right, or not receiving a pension; and

had a deficient national insurance contribution record in any of the years between 1996-97 and 2001-02; and would have received a deficiency notice from HMRC.

The Department also wrote to

those customers living abroad who were also in the United Kingdom at the time and met the criteria above;

customers reaching state pension age between 6 April 2004 and 24 October 2004 who had a deficient national insurance contribution in their final relevant year tax year 2003-04 and 2002-03;

customers who had already paid voluntary class 3 national insurance contributions at either the standard rate or the higher rate and who were refunded the difference, and

customers who had paid voluntary class 3 national insurance contributions and did not have their state pension backdated to state pension age in line with the easements introduced with this exercise.

only those customers who could benefit from the payment of class 3 national insurance contributions were contacted.

The Department does not hold management information on the gender split of letters issued during this exercise.