FOI request, putting the zombie pensions letter to rest

Summary
During the independence campaign the First Minister brandished a letter from the DWP which the Yes movement repeatedly and wrongly went on to claim proved that the UK Government would pay Scottish pensions post independence. Here I show through an FOI request that their claim was categorically wrong. 

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The smoking gun
It's no mistake, given my background, that I obsess over pensions in an independent Scotland but I'm convinced, barring currency, it's the weakest part of the case for independence. 

It didn't have to be. The Yes movement could have come up with an honest, dispassionate and credible state pension policy. Indeed they did at first, but ended up abandoning the policy for a dog whistle attempt to confuse the electorate and their supporters. 

So sharp was the sound of that dog whistle that some of the more extreme ends of their support, such as Campbell and Bell took the dog whistle as gospel. Indeed in the case of Campbell he went so far as to base the crux of his Wee Blue Book on a fundamental error involving pensions. 

None of this would have happened were it not for that letter. The 'one off' letter held up by Salmond in the Scottish Parliament as part of their disinformation campaign on pensions. 

For some in the Yes Campaign this is the smoking gun. The trouble is it's not, the letter is wrong and now, as I'll show, we've finally got an official admission as such from the DWP. 

But it's wrong...

I've said before there are several problems with the letter when nationalists brandish it as proof that Scottish pensions would be paid by the continuing UK. 

1. The letter doesn't say that.

2. It contradicts the policy of the Scottish Government which explicitly stated in their Pensions in an Independent Scotland paper that the responsibility for all existing UK pensions would lie with the Scottish Government. For further measure the white paper clarified beyond all doubt that this responsibility included financial as well as administrative responsibility and their budget assumes that the Scottish Government makes these payments from Scottish tax receipts. 

3. It contradicts the statements made by the DWP minister to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee which explicitly stated that payments would be dependent on the ability of the Scottish Government to pay. 

4. It's factually inaccurate. There was no legal assurance that on independence that there would be no effect on the UK Pension. Had Scotland not been in the EU or Scotland and the continuing UK did not agree a welfare sharing agreement then, like in Australia, Scots pensioners would not receive annual increases in their pensions. Whilst this was likely to happen it was not qualified in the letter and therefore was legally incorrect. 

5. The DWP cast doubt on the letter at the time it came to light and they said "We will look into this specific letter in case any misleading information was inadvertently given out"

This all underlines my view that the letter was probably a one off issued by a junior official in a DWP office aiming to reassure enquirer whilst not wanting to second guess the outcome of independence. The only trouble is that, despite having the best of intentions, the official went too far in doing so. 

The zombie letter

Despite the overwhelming evidence above that the letter did not accurately reflect the position on independence the letter is like a zombie in The Walking Dead. No matter how many times you cut it down it just keeps getting revived by a Yes movement that still hasn't come to terms with their inconsistent position on pensions. 

Therefore I thought it was time to put this issue to rest for once and for all. The most obvious approach was to the DWP themselves. I've tried a few approaches to get the issue of the letter clarified but unsurprisingly the DWP aren't very keen to throw a member of their staff under the metaphorical bus. 

After all if one of your colleagues made an innocent mistake but it was blown up out of all proportion by the First Minister of Scotland wouldn't you be likely to circle the wagons around them and obfuscate any attempt at getting this information?

However finally this weekend I got official confirmation from the DWP.

Rather that trying to establish facts about a one off letter (and let them hide behind the Data Protection Act) I realised that the correct approach was ask about the investigation that the DWP announced above. 

So on my second attempt at an Freedom of Information request I was able to get the DWP to admit that there was indeed an error on the original letter. Their investigation concluded that factually inaccurate information was issued and the letter should have stated:

‘In the event of independence, State Pensions and benefits in Scotland for its citizens would be the responsibility of a Scottish Government. Therefore, any questions about entitlements in an independent Scottish state should be directed to the Scottish Government.’ 

So there we have it, it was a mistake. Plain and simple as that. 

I've still got a further FOI request running trying to establish if this letter was indeed, as I suspect, a one off. Despite looking very hard I haven't been able to find any other versions of this letter to anyone else, but if anyone does have another genuine DWP letter on the same basis then let me know. 

I'm aware that for some this zombie letter will never die, but for me this finally provides the headshot (watch the Walking Dead if you don't understand) that this letter needs. We can finally put it to rest.

The DWP letter to an individual that was brandished by the First Minister as a statement of policy was simply an error issued by an ill informed junior official acting with best intentions. The First Minister could have established this at the time but decided not to, in doing so he caused confusion within his own campaign, dumped his own good pensions policy and probably caused a junior civil servant to be disciplined.