Ministry of Defence written question – answered at on 28 January 2026.
Caroline Dinenage
Chair, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Chair, Culture, Media and Sport Committee
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps are being taken to (a) clear the backlog of unclaimed Armed Forces pensions and (b) prevent the accumulation of unclaimed pensions in future.
Louise Jones
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence
There is currently no backlog for unclaimed deferred pensions.
The Ministry of Defence continues to conduct tracing exercises 60 working days after the pension due date to establish the member's address and invite them to claim; we continue to explore additional mechanisms to identify individuals who qualify for an unclaimed deferred pension.
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
