I made a cake while waiting on phone — and STILL haven’t seen a penny

FORMER NHS worker Alison Maynard first applied for her state pension in February — but has yet to receive a single penny of it.

Alison (left) estimates she has spent at least seven working days chasing her application and has been left waiting on the phone for up to 45 minutes at a time.

Call handlers have given numerous excuses to the 66year-old, claiming there is a backlog of applications.

Alison, from Herefordshire, says: ‘It’s frustrating because I am left waiting on the phone for so long. It usually takes around 38 minutes just to get through to somebody.

‘Last week, I made a whole cake in the time I was waiting on the phone. There was one day when I got through in 12 minutes and I nearly dropped the phone I was so shocked.

‘The communication is very poor. And when I finally do get through to somebody it’s always the same call handlers, who are very polite but can’t really help.’

Alison, who was in charge of graduate recruitment in an NHS trust, first stopped working eight years ago when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has since recovered. She had made additional voluntary contributions to her National Insurance to bring the total up to 35 years and is now owed more than £2,000 in payments.

On one occasion a call handler said the payment had been received but not ‘activated’. On another they suggested she had filled out her bank details wrongly. She pointed out that her details were correct.

She says: ‘I feel like they are making up excuses. Fortunately, I am not desperate for the money as my husband and I downsized homes recently so we do have money. But the point is that the DWP doesn’t know that. I could be on the breadline for all they know.’