Social Security

Debate between Liz Kendall and Mike Amesbury

Tuesday 10th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Liz Kendall]

I will not.

But the truth we had to confront coming into office was that up to 880,000 of the very poorest pensioners are not even claiming the pension credit that they are entitled to. That is a national scandal, and we are determined to make that change. The previous Government did nothing to tackle this issue properly. Indeed, in 2012 they promised to merge housing benefit and pension credit, which we know would significantly increase uptake, yet when I arrived in the Department I learned it would not happen until 2028—a decision that was taken on their watch. That is completely unacceptable and, unlike the Conservatives, we will change it.

[Mike Amesbury]

I thank the Secretary of State for giving way and welcome the increased measures to target the 880,000 who, because of the actions of Conservative Members when they were in government for 14 years, have not received pensioner credit. There are people who have legitimate concerns about the low level of the threshold—hard-working people who have tiny pension pots. What mitigating measures will the Secretary of State put in place?

[Liz Kendall]

I will come on to extra help for those just above the threshold in a moment, but I want to spell out what we are doing on pension credit.

We have done more to increase pension credit uptake in the last two months than Conservative Members did in 14 years. We have written to all local authorities to ask them to identify eligible pensioners, including by sharing data. We are joining forces with Age UK and Citizens Advice to ensure pensioners check and apply. We launched a major awareness campaign, to continue right up to the deadline to apply on 21 December—and yes, pension credit will be backdated by three months—backed by 450 extra staff to ensure claims are processed as quickly as possible.

The Deputy Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner), is working with housing associations and supported accommodation providers so that their residents know what they are entitled to. I am working with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting), to ensure that frontline NHS staff can signpost older patients who may be housebound because of disabilities and chronic conditions. For the very first time, we are writing to all pensioners on housing benefit who are potentially eligible to encourage them to claim, something the Conservatives never did. In the longer term, because the only way to guarantee uptake is to make the whole process more automated, we will bring forward the merger of housing benefit and pension credit, which Conservative Members never did.

That is the extra help for the poorest that we are determined to deliver, but it is built on a bedrock of support for all pensioners through our commitment to the pension triple lock, which has seen the new state pension increase by £900 this year and £970 the year before. Our continued commitment to the triple lock means that the new state pension is forecast to increase by a further £1,700 over the course of this Parliament, including, if today’s Office for National Statistics figures are confirmed next month, an extra £460 from next April.