Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has taken steps to work with Portsmouth City Council to help increase pension credit take-up.

As part of our nationwide Pension Credit campaign, the Department has engaged with all councils in Great Britain, including Portsmouth City Council, via the regular LA Welfare Direct bulletins.

The LA Welfare Direct 8/2024 bulletin in August featured a ‘call to action’, asking local authorities to help promote Pension Credit during the Pension Credit Week of Action and offering them the opportunity to request our promotional materials. The latest LA Welfare Direct 12/2024 bulletin also included a reminder about the 21 December Pension Credit backdating deadline to qualify for either a Winter Fuel Payment or Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.

In response to our call to action over 160 councils across Great Britain have supported our Pension Credit campaign either on social media, or by distributing the promotional material we have provided. We know that Portsmouth City Council are one of the councils that has promoted Pension Credit on social media using our campaign messages.

The local DWP strategic relationship team have also shared the campaign promotional material directly with Portsmouth City Council and attended a recent Tackling Poverty Partnership event to help raise awareness of our campaign.