Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants of (a) disability benefits and (b) the state pension have their benefits paid into a Post Office Card Account.

The Department for Work and Pensions provides Post Office card accounts to ensure that customers can continue to access their benefits and pensions in this way.

As of October 2018 there were just under 1.2m active Post Office card accounts. In line with our wider policy on financial inclusion, we have always made it clear that payment into a bank, building society or credit union is the preferred way for all benefits to be paid.

The information requested about the number of disabled social security and pension recipients is not available.