The Treasury Minister says “very exciting developments” in National Insurance systems are on the way, as the department works through a backlog of state pension forecast requests dating back to February.
Responding to Jason Moorhouse MHK, Chris Thomas said the Income Tax Division has issued 2,291 pension statements so far this tax year, with 536 applications still waiting to be processed.
Thomas said the Treasury aims to reduce turnaround times to three months by July, helped by a new National Insurance system due to be rolled out later this year.
The upgraded platform is expected to generate automated pension forecasts, significantly speeding up the process.
“There are some very exciting developments in terms of systems in Treasury for National Insurance and for other systems,” Thomas told members, adding that briefings for Tynwald will follow.
He said demand had surged due to UK opportunities to buy back past NI years, which previously pushed waiting times to nine months.
The full exchange can be listened to below:
