The charity Independent Age says older Brits applying for the four main pensioner benefits – Pension Credit, Attendance Allowance, Housing Benefit, and Council Tax reductions – would need to answer 450 questions to complete the applications
Over one million pensioners are missing out on an extra £1,900 a year as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) application process is too “complicated.”
The charity Independent Age says older Brits applying for the four main pensioner benefits – Pension Credit, Attendance Allowance, Housing Benefit, and Council Tax reductions – would need to answer 450 questions to complete the applications. The charity estimates that this could take up to four hours with the help of a trained advisor and even longer if the person attempts it without.
Independent Age blames the complicated process on the low take-up of financial support, with pensioners describing the processes as “long, tedious, repetitive”. One person said “by the time you finish, you feel absolutely awful, mentally exhausted and worry you won’t get the help”.
According to the latest figures, only 65% of people eligible for Pension Credit received the benefit in 2023. This means around 970,000 low-income Brits were missing out on support worth £1.5billion – a loss of around £1,900 a year each. At the same time, 83% of those eligible were missing out on Housing Benefit. This equates to 270,000 older households going without support, with £1.1billion currently going unclaimed.
Official data says that around two million older people are currently living in poverty, and a further one million are “precariously on the edge”. Independent Age noted that there were also people who would’ve lost their Winter Fuel Payment entitlement after the rules were changed – meaning the numbers could be even higher for this winter.
Independent Age chief executive Joanna Elson said: “It is clear that the UK has a social security system that is far too complex and difficult to navigate, and while there are numerous entitlements available, many people in later life are often unable to access potentially life-changing support as a result. Something has to change.”
“The UK government and local authorities must work together to drive take-up for benefits such as pension credit and housing benefit. There needs to be an entitlement take up strategy that tears down the barriers that make it so difficult to understand the system, and in some cases, inaccessible for many people in later life.”
The charity’s chief executive has urged the benefits department to “simply and streamline” its application process, as well as look into automating certain parts of the process to help “get money into the pockets of those who need it”.
Kelly Conlan, advice and support manager at Independent Age, added: “Our helpline regularly receives calls from worried older people who know there is financial support out there but are daunted by the challenge of applying because of the sheer scale and complexity of the process. Older people across the country are sitting in cold homes and only eating one meal a day. It shouldn’t be so difficult to apply for support that could make a huge difference to their quality of life.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “We have made the process of applying for benefits as accessible as possible such as completing the pension credit claim form online now takes on average just 16 minutes while figures published last week show nearly 120,000 more pensioners are receiving it since July.
“Our new initiative of joining up state pension and pension credit is supporting more people onto the benefit as soon as they become eligible, and we have written to over 120,000 pensioner households in receipt of housing benefit about pension credit to better join up the offer further improve uptake.”
