Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to use the data held by central and local government agencies to identify individuals entitled to the means-tested Pension Credit and to ensure those individuals entitled to Pension Credit receive it.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department is making better use of data to reach potentially eligible households. For example, since February, all new Housing Benefit claimants who may be eligible have been invited to apply for Pension Credit. The Department also shares extensive data with local authorities for a variety of purposes. Local authorities are allowed to re-use that data under the terms of a data sharing Memorandum of Understanding, to help identify people eligible for Pension Credit – subject to them notifying the Department of their intent and the appropriate legal considerations. This data reuse process can be used to help identify people eligible for Pension Credit.
Maximising Pension Credit take-up is a key Government priority. That is why we have been running the biggest ever Pension Credit take-up campaign across Great Britain to encourage pensioners and their families to check their eligibility and make a claim. We are building on this with the launch of our autumn campaign and a Pension Credit week of action from 12 October. The campaign includes new advertising across television, radio, print and social media, supported by media partnerships and social media influencers. We are also distributing some 660,000 leaflets to selected households across Great Britain and we continue to work closely with partners and Local Authorities to help support the campaign.