Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to her Answer of 11 September 2024 to Question 2913 on Pension Credit: Take-up, how many full-time equivalent (a) staff, (b) new staff and (c) staff reallocated from other roles in her Department are supporting the programme of activity to increase the number of Pension Credit claims; and for how long additional staff are expected to be allocated to supporting that programme.

Prior to the Winter Fuel announcement, Retirement Services Directorate (RSD) had 352 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff deployed on Pension Credit claims. Since the announcement, a deployment plan has been agreed to deploy an additional 537 FTE into RSD to support Pension Credit. With a further 156 FTE planned to onboard from recruitment between November 2024 and January 2025 . Additional staff will remain for as long as necessary to ensure customers will get a decision on their Pension Credit claim.