Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of altering pension credit eligibility to award pension credit for couples where one partner is in receipt of state pension and the other is under state pension age.

Since May 2019, both members of a couple need to have reached State Pension age in order to be eligible for Pension Credit. This policy ensures that the same incentives to work and save apply to the younger partner as apply to other people of the same age. Pension Credit is intended to provide long term support for pensioner households who are no longer economically active due to age. It is not intended to support people of working age.

We have no plans to change this policy.