Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of pensioners living in (a) relative poverty and (b) absolute poverty that are not in receipt of Pension Credit.

For the financial year 2022/23, the latest year that data that is available, 1.6m pensioners living in households not in receipt of Pension Credit were in relative poverty after housing costs, and 1.2m pensioners living in households not in receipt of Pension Credit were in absolute poverty after housing costs.

Statistics on the number of pensioners living in absolute and relative poverty in the UK are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication at Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab). The latest available data with breakdowns by receipt of Pension Credit can be found on Stat-Xplore (https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/) in the ‘Households Below Average Income’ dataset. The latest statistics published on 21 March 2024 are for the financial period 2022/23.

Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: Getting Started (dwp.gov.uk). An account is not required to use Stat- Xplore, the ‘Guest Login’ feature gives instant access to the main functions.