Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of all people eligible for Pension Credit claiming it.

The estimated total cost if all people eligible for Pension Credit claimed is around £7.6 billion, for Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2022, for Great Britain.

This has been calculated by adding the benefit expenditure for Pension Credit for 2021/2022 (Pension Credit claimed by eligible pensioners) and the estimate of pension credit unclaimed by eligible pensioners in FYE 2022.

As published in DWP Pension Credit Take-up statistics, an estimate of up to 880,000 families who were entitled to receive PC did not claim the benefit, and the estimate of Pension Credit unclaimed by eligible pensioners in FYE 2022 is £2.1 billion. The pension credit expenditure was an estimated £5.5 billion in 2021/2022.

Source:

Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year ending 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)