North Tayside Liberal Democrats

Bruce challenges Government on pensioner poverty disgrace

Malcolm Bruce, the North East MP has challenged the Government on not doing enough to help tackle pensioner poverty.

Speaking in the House of Commons he chided the Minister for Pensions and the Ageing Society (at the Department of Work and Pensions) over the complicated means-tested pension credit system which the MP claims is confusing and which has resulted in a poor uptake amongst pensioners.

The Gordon MP said: "Does the Minister acknowledge that a reason for [the 2 million pensioners in relative poverty] is the complexity and delay involved in applying for benefits, particularly pension credit, for which the form is 18-pages long and the guidance is 19 pages? Does she not accept that, for many people, that is simply a deterrent, which means that they do not claim benefits? Is that not the Government's intention? If it is not, surely they could find a better way of ensuring that people who are entitled to benefits get them."Malcolm Bruce MP: Gordon

The minister refuted the claim, responding that the Government is working to improve the take-up of pension credit, and it was her belief that they are succeeding.

Afterwards Mr Bruce said:

"The Minister may point to improvements but the fact of the matter is that I have had constituents come to me with their experiences which do not reflect the Minister's optimism.

"Millions of pensioners are missing out on the money they need to get by because the benefits system is so complicated. If we had a higher state pension older people wouldn't even need these benefits.

"The Government admitted that 700,000 pensioners would be lifted out of poverty if everyone claimed all the benefits to which they were entitled. Instead it has saved over £35billion since 1997 thanks to benefits that have not reached the poorest pensioners in the UK.

"Figures show that last year an estimated 1.7million pensioners missed out on an average of over £1700 each of pension credit.

"Pensioners can apply for Pension Credit over the phone but the average length of a call is 14 minutes and applicants have to answer questions about their income and savings."

Notes:

• Malcolm Bruce was speaking in the House of Commons on 7 December 2009, c12

Malcolm Bruce (Gordon, Liberal Democrat):

What her most recent estimate is of the number of pensioners living in poverty?

Angela Eagle (Minister of State (Pensions and the Ageing Society), Department for Work and Pensions; Wallasey, Labour):

Through targeted support and additional funding, we have got 900,000 pensioners out of the relative poverty in which they were living in 1997. However, there are still 2 million pensioners in relative poverty, which we define as 60 per cent. or below of median household income.

Malcolm Bruce (Gordon, Liberal Democrat):

Does the Minister acknowledge that a reason for that is the complexity and delay involved in applying for benefits, particularly pension credit, for which the form is 18-pages long and the guidance is 19 pages? Does she not accept that, for many people, that is simply a deterrent, which means that they do not claim benefits? Is that not the Government's intention? If it is not, surely they could find a better way of ensuring that people who are entitled to benefits get them.

Angela Eagle (Minister of State (Pensions and the Ageing Society), Department for Work and Pensions; Wallasey, Labour);

First things first: I am proud to be part of the first Government ever to end the link between poverty and old age. A report published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on 3 December revealed that there has been a historic reversal in the fortunes of pensioners over state pension age, who are now at the lowest risk of being in poverty than any other age group. I do very important work with the Pensions Service in attempting to encourage pension credit recipients to claim, and that service makes 13,000 visits a week to the homes of vulnerable pensioners to take them through the claim form. People can claim for pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit in the same phone call, and the hon. Gentleman's own local authority - Aberdeenshire-is one of 203 local authorities working in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions to improve the take-up of pension credit, and we believe that we are succeeding.

• Age Concern has written a report on attitudes to pension credit : "Flagship or flagging? The impact of Pension Credit five years on" page 22: http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/AgeConcern/Documents/Pension_Credit_Report.pdf
• Figures on the average length of time taken to compete telephone applications are given in a parliamentary question: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090430/text/90430w0021.htm