Oral Answers to Questions

Patricia Gibson Excerpts

Monday 24th April 2023 Commons Chamber

[Holly Lynch (Halifax) (Lab)]

4. What recent estimate he has made of the number of pensioners in poverty.

[Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) (SNP)]

19. What recent assessment he has made of trends in the number of pensioners living in poverty.

[Samantha Dixon (City of Chester) (Lab)]

21. What recent estimate he has made of the number of pensioners in poverty.

--- Later in debate ---

[Laura Trott]

I appreciate the hon. Lady’s raising that case. I encourage her—I am sure she has already—to check whether her constituent would be eligible for housing benefit in her constituency. That is not necessarily linked to pension credit, although it automatically passports. We are doing other things to support pensioners in those situations—the pensioner cost of living payment was received by 8 million pensioner households over the winter, and will be repeated this year.

[Patricia Gibson]

The UK already has the lowest state pension as a proportion of pre-retirement wages in north-west Europe. Independent Age has highlighted that 5% of pensioner couples and 19% of single pensioners have no source of income other than state pension or any associated potential benefits. Will the Minister finally take action to address pensioner poverty and shockingly low state pensions relative to most of Europe?

[Laura Trott]

We challenge those figures, as the hon. Lady knows. I point her to the record increase in state pension that we have just introduced—10.1% for both the state pension and pension credit. That will make a real difference to pensioner poverty levels, alongside the cost of living payments that are going out this year—£900 for pensioners on pension credit and £300 for all pensioner households.