Independent Age has joined other charities and campaigners in calling on the government to halt its plans to means-test the winter fuel payment – until “significant action can be taken to substantially increase pension credit take-up”.
“During April 2022 and March 2023, the country was going through a cost of living crisis which hit older people on low incomes particularly hard as their income failed to keep up with rising prices,” Elson said.
However, these latest figures are an improvement on the previous year. Around 65% of those entitled to pension credit claimed the benefit in the financial year ending 2023, compared with 63% in the financial year ending 2022.
Around 78% of pension credit that could have been claimed was claimed, whereas just 73% was in the previous year.
Alex Clegg, an economist at the Resolution Foundation, called the uptick “particularly encouraging given that pension credit is now used to passport eligibility to winter fuel payments”. He said he expects take-up to increase further in light of this.
The Labour government pledged to increase awareness of pension credit after the announcement about the winter fuel payment, and there is evidence that applications have increased. But it is so far unclear how many of these will result in successful claims.
“The government must continue to actively boost the take up of pension credit in order to mitigate the impact of the cut on poorer pensioners currently set to lose much-needed support this winter,” Clegg said.
A recent study published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) found that while people had heard of pension credit, there was a “common perception among participants that they would not be entitled to pension credit, even among those who claimed successfully”.
Some people were “shocked” they could claim pension credit for a second time if they had been refused in the past, others were unaware they could claim pension credit alongside other benefits, and others thought their income was too high to be entitled to pension credit.
People who were already in receipt of benefits were less likely to know that pension credit needs to be claimed (64%) compared with people not in receipt of a benefit (73%), perhaps because benefit claimants may expect they would be automatically assessed.
Elson added: “We need an innovative, evidence-based, long-term benefits take-up strategy that maps out how older people living in, or on the edge of, poverty can access the financial support they are entitled to. With winter around the corner, now is the time to bring those who most need it back in from the cold.”
There are 410,000 single women not receiving pension credit, much higher than single men at 140,000 and couples. There is also a higher number of over 75s missing out at 470,000 compared to 220,000 under 75s.
Caroline Abrahams CBE, charity director at Age UK, said: “Pension credit take-up didn’t increase as much as we might have hoped, especially as in 2022/23 cost of living payments were tied to pension credit (among other benefits).
“This should caution us against assuming that the announcement of the winter fuel payment now being linked to pension credit will automatically lead to a massive rise in take-up this winter.
“It’s now even clearer to see older people in most need of a winter fuel payment won’t get it because the government has linked eligibility to an under-claimed benefit. Unless ministers change tack, and quickly, millions of older people on low and modest incomes could be facing potential disaster as the weather chills.”
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