Oral Answers to Questions

Vikki Slade Excerpts

Monday 17th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Alison McGovern]

The hon. Member makes an important point. We had a manifesto commitment to try to tackle the backlog. We have put more staff in place to deal with that backlog, but we have more to do, because it is important that disabled people are able to take up jobs that are offered to them. We need to make sure that that is a scheme that works.

[Vikki Slade (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)]

8. What steps her Department is taking to help increase uptake of pension credit.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Torsten Bell)]

This Government have been running the biggest ever pension credit take-up campaign. In the latest stage, we are now writing to all pensioners who make a new housing benefit claim and who appear to be entitled to pension credit, directly targeting them and encouraging them to apply.

[Vikki Slade]

The rate of take-up for pension credit has traditionally been between 60% and 65%. If that rate were uplifted, it could take 400,000 people out of income poverty. In Dorset, the number of over-65s has increased by about 20% over the past decade. People say that their biggest concern is the paperwork they have to complete. The applications contain up to 225 questions purely for pension credit, and many pensioners would easily be able to claim for things like the carer addition through a slight tweak in the paperwork. What is the Department doing to simplify and combine those applications to make life easier for pensioners?

[Torsten Bell]

We are already doing a lot to simplify the process; it now takes 16 minutes on average to complete an online form, and 90% of people apply online or over the phone. However, the hon. Lady is completely right to highlight the fact that we must do more, including by simplifying the form. We continue to keep that under review, and I am always interested in ideas about how we can go further.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alison McGovern]

As my hon. Friend mentions, there are important opportunities in Slough that the young people growing up there need to be able to take advantage of. That is why we launched our youth guarantee as part of our plan to get Britain working. It will be there for 18 to 21-year-olds. Again, I encourage my hon. Friend to work with his local jobcentre in Slough as we improve the support available for young people.

[Vikki Slade (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)]

T7. My constituent Sarah left an abusive relationship but, after she applied for maintenance, her ex-partner denied parentage, putting the children through DNA tests; delayed matters; claimed special expenses; and then declared nil earnings, despite having just bought a house with a mortgage—all accepted with no investigation. He is now being asked to pay back his arrears of thousands of pounds at £1 per month. What is being done to review the burden of proof on income, to support parents and children who are being financially abused even after they have left relationships?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Andrew Western)]

As the hon. Lady may know, the Department recently consulted on a range of proposals for future improvements to the child maintenance service, such as how we can protect people from financial abuse and better support victims of domestic abuse. I am obviously not familiar with the specifics of the case she references, but I would be more than happy to follow up if she writes to me about it.