Oral Answers to Questions

Stuart C McDonald Excerpts

Monday 30th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mims Davies)]

Work coaches are vital in delivering our £30 billion plan for jobs. They have done an amazing job already this year, with an additional almost 5,000 work coaches already recruited, another 1,700 agreed starts in the pipeline and recruitment open again. We will be advertising for 3,000 more posts between now and the end of January, in addition to the posts currently advertised. Search “work coach” on gov.uk to apply.

[Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP)]

Fixing the low uptake of pension credit could lift 450,000 pensioners out of poverty and save taxpayers £4 billion of NHS and social care costs. Unlike the Scottish Government, the UK Government have no legal obligation to produce a take-up plan, but they have a moral obligation to act, so can we see a proper, published and ambitious take-up plan and targets, please?

[Dr Coffey]

We want to make sure that all eligible pensioners claim the pension credit to which they are rightly entitled, and we want to encourage people to either call the free claim line—0800 999 1234—or go online to gov.uk/pension-credit. We did a considerable amount of advertising earlier in the year to encourage that, and of course the BBC has, in effect, done some free advertising, recognising that those people who have pension credit will also get a free TV licence.