Teaming up for success

Pensioners are benefiting from joined up services delivered by the Pension Service, local authorities and other agencies. Ian Mitchell reports on why London is leading the way

Let’s be honest. Bureaucracies can be baffling, even for those of us who work in them.

For older residents trying to navigate their way through a mass of benefits and service providers, they can be daunting barriers to getting services and entitlements.

In June 2005 the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and London Councils launched an initiative to cut through the bureaucratic barriers by setting up Joint Teams.

Joint Teams are partnerships that bring together the Pension Service and local authority staff and, in some cases, voluntary sector organisations and primary care trusts, to cut a swathe through the form-filling obstacles between older residents and pensions, benefits and services.