Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase take-up of Pension Credit and reduce pensioner poverty, especially for older women.

There are now 200,000 fewer pensioners in absolute poverty than in 2009/10. The percentage of women aged 75 and over in absolute poverty after housing costs fell from 18 per cent in 2009/10 to 15 per cent in 2019/20.

The Government is committed to continuing to reduce pensioner poverty and Pension Credit has an important role to play, as a source of financial support for all eligible pensioners.

Department of Work and Pension Ministers recently met with stakeholders with an interest in pensioners’ financial wellbeing and the Director General of the BBC to explore opportunities to work together to support the promotion of Pension Credit.

The department continues to make the best use of all our channels to reach those who might be eligible as well as their family and friends. For example, over 11 million pensioners in Great Britain recently received messaging about Pension Credit with their annual State Pension up-rating letter. This highlighted that an award of Pension Credit can mean being eligible for other benefits such as Housing Benefit or a free over-75 TV licence. We also make use of proactive press activity and social media posts to encourage older people to check if they are eligible.

Our online Pension Credit material on gov.uk has also recently being updated, providing helpful information on how Pension Credit can help pensioners and how easy it is to claim particularly with the online service we introduced last year which enables family, friends and organisations to help pensioners, including older women pensioners, make a claim.