Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people for whom the freezing of the savings element of pensions credit and increases in the basic state pension has had a net negative effect on their income in each of the last three financial years.

The overall impact of benefit up-rating on a customer’s income depends on a wide variety of factors (including for example any changes to their non state pensions that occur around the same time) which means we cannot accurately measure these impacts. However, the increases in the basic State Pension under the terms of the triple lock, have been more significant than the reductions in the savings credit. Overall it is unlikely that any Pension Credit customer should be worse off, in cash terms, as a result of the uprating decisions made over the last three years.