Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a Pension Credit uptake target.

The Government is committed to ensuring that older people receive the support they are entitled to. That’s why we have been running a nationwide communications campaign to promote Pension Credit since September. The latest phase of the campaign takes a new approach targeting friends and family - asking them to tell people they know about Pension Credit, encourage them to check their eligibility, as well as help them make a claim. It is running on TV, radio, social media such as Facebook and Instagram, on YouTube and on advertising screens, including on GP and Post Office screens.

As part of our wider stakeholder outreach campaign and in order to get the message out through as many channels as possible, we have engaged with key stakeholders and partners, including other government departments, local councils, housing associations, community groups, local libraries and service providers as well as charities and third sector organisations.

We have also directly targeted 120,000 pensioner households in receipt of Housing Benefit, identified as being potentially entitled to, but not currently claiming, Pension Credit.

We do not believe that setting targets for take-up of Pension Credit would be helpful or that they would work. However, we have committed to bringing together the administration of Pension Credit and pensioner Housing Benefit for new claimants as soon as operationally possible in order to ensure pensioners receive all the benefits to which they are entitled