Hundreds of thousands of people are missing out on benefits
The DWP has spoken about changes in how people apply for their benefits. Bosses from the department spoke to MPs recently about their work, including efforts to get people to apply for the support they are entitled to.
Peter Schofield, permanent secretary at the DWP, told the Work and Pensions Committee his team is stepping up efforts to get people to apply for benefits. One hugely underclaimed DWP benefit is Pension Credit, which supports people of state pension age on a low income. DWP figures for the 2024/22025 tax year said more than 910,000 people were missing out on the benefit.
Mr Schofield told the committee: “We have been working to encourage more people to apply for Pension Credit.” He said there has been a change in the way people tend to apply for the benefit.
The top official said: “Now only around 10 percent of people apply using the paper form and the paper form has been superseded for most people by telephony or by an online channel. The problem with the paper form, and I know it has been referred to a number of times, is with 200 questions and all the rest of it, but a lot of those are because you have to put in questions to relate to certain circumstances that might not otherwise apply.
“If you have a child in your claim, you must fill in a certain number of questions; if you have a disability, you have to fill in a certain number of questions. If you have a second child, that adds another set of questions.” But he said you can avoid some of these complexities if you do your application online or over the phone.
Mr Schofield said: “With the online or the telephony channel we just take you to the questions that you need to answer that are relevant to you. That makes the whole process much more streamlined and enables us to get through the claims more quickly. We are now in a good position with very low outstanding heads of work on our Pension Credit system.”
How much is Pension Credit?
The average Pension Credit claim is worth £4,300 a year in support, with the benefit potentially including a top-up to your income and access to other Government support. The income top-up is known as ‘Guarantee Credit’, and tops up your income to up to £227.10 a week for single claimants and up to £346.60 a week if you have a partner.
You can get extra amounts on top of this depending on your situation. For example, you could be eligible for an extra £82.90 a week if you live with a severe disability and you could be paid an additional £46.40 a week if you care for another adult.
The DWP was asked for an update about its work to contact people to encourage them to apply. A DWP spokesperson said: “We want all pensioners to get the support they are rightly entitled to and our biggest ever Pension Credit take-up campaign has seen a record number of claims with nearly 60,000 extra awards this year.
“To help boost claims, we have also undertaken a new trial with Age UK and Independent Age, which targets pensioners who are most likely to be eligible for Pension Credit but not currently claiming the benefit.”
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