Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to her Written Statement of 14 January 2019, Official Report HCWS1249, what assessment she has made of the potential effect on women's incomes of changes to pension credit.

The Pension Credit change was legislated for in the Welfare Reform Act 2012. It was announced on 14 January 2019 that the change would take effect from 15 May 2019. It will not apply to couples already claiming Pension Credit and/or Housing Benefit for pensioners immediately before the 15 May implementation date for as long as they remain entitled to either benefit. Furthermore, couples who would be eligible for the pension age benefits under the previous rules but have not claimed before 15 May will have up to 13 August to make a backdated claim.

There has been ongoing equality analysis of the mixed age couple change, including the publication of a research and analysis paper relating to mixed age couples estimated to be affected by the change in policy on 28 February 2019.

The analysis shows that the vast majority of mixed age couples comprised a male and female partner. There is no indication that the change will have a disproportionate impact on the basis of sex.

The analysis can be viewed here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/mixed-age-couples-benefit-impacts-of-ending-access-to-pension-credit-and-pension-age-housing-benefit