Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 11 March 2025 to Question 35774 on Pension Credit: Staff, if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of using (a) external providers and (b) external recruitment to process pension credit applications during Winter 2024-25.

My previous response (UIN 35775) advised we had deployed over 500 additional staff through a combination of internal redeployments, use of external providers and external recruitment.

The 24/25 forecast cost of (a) external providers is £1.9 million, and (b) external recruitment is £2.2 million.