Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people in receipt of the State Pension were (a) in receipt of and (b) eligible for Pension Credit on 3 September 2024; and if she will make an estimate of the number and proportion of people in receipt of the State Pension that will be (i) in receipt of and (ii) eligible for Pension Credit in each of the next five years.

Benefit combinations statistics are routinely published and made publicly available via DWP Stat-xplore. Due to the suspension of State Pension statistics, the latest available data covers the period up to May 2023. At May 2023, there were 1,228,563 people in receipt of the State Pension and Pension Credit in England and Wales and 127,219 people in receipt of the State Pension and Pension Credit in Scotland. This represents around 12% of all people in receipt of the State Pension in England and Wales at May 2023 and around 13% of all people in receipt of the State Pension in Scotland at May 2023.

Information relating to Pension Credit eligibility is only available via take-up statistics. The latest available Pension Credit take-up statistics for Great Britain cover the financial year 2021 to 2022 and are available at: Income-related benefits: estimates oftake-up: financial year ending 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). It is estimated that up to 880,000 families who were entitled to receive Pension Credit did not claim the benefit. However, from this data, we are unable to estimate how many of those who are eligible for Pension Credit are also in receipt of the State Pension.

Benefit expenditure and caseload tables are published annually and are available at: Benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The table below shows the estimate of the Pension Credit caseload in Great Britain for the next five years. These estimates will include those who are in receipt of the State Pension, as well as those who are not.

We do not hold data about Pension Credit eligibility for the next five years.