WOW! the time delays have been drastically shortened.
6 years ago when I applied for my UK pension it took them over 3 months just to send the application forms,
after another 3 months I was informed they had not received anything,
so I must reapply. This of course took around another 3 months.
All in all it took 51 weeks before the first payment was made.
Standard copy book replies "We are understaffed and overworked". After 8 months I was down to my last penny so I had to apply for assistance, and the German athourities thought I was joking.