{"id":22872,"date":"2025-07-26T05:38:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T05:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/22872\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T05:38:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T05:38:07","slug":"labour-urged-to-overhaul-crucial-pension-age-benefit-claimed-by-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/22872\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour urged to overhaul crucial pension-age benefit claimed by millions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The government has been told it needs to make major changes to a pension-age benefit<\/a> claimed by millions if it is to effectively tackle pensioner poverty in the UK.<\/p>\n

Claimed by 1.3 million individuals, Pension Credit is designed to bring low-income pensioners\u2019 funds<\/a> up to a liveable level. Under current entitlement, claimants will see their incomes topped up to at least \u00a3227.10 a week.<\/p>\n

But more must be done to improve take-up of the benefit, the cross-party Work and Pensions<\/a> Committee has warned, as well as changes to make it fairer.<\/p>\n

Despite being worth up to \u00a34,000 a year, the take-up of pension credit has hovered between 61 and 66 per cent for a decade, with an estimated 700,000 households being eligible but not claiming, the committee found in its report on pensioner poverty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"1.9<\/p>\n

1.9 million pensioners (16 per cent) are now living in relative poverty, the work and pensions committee said (Lucy North\/PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

A taper to pension credit should also be considered to \u201cmitigate the cliff-edge effect\u201d for those who currently miss out, it added.<\/p>\n

Under current rules, some pensioners<\/a> just above income thresholds could end up worse off than those with slightly lower incomes. This is because Pension Credit can \u2018passport\u2019 recipients to other benefits<\/a> such as housing benefit, council tax support, the warm home discount, a free TV licence, and help with dental treatment.<\/p>\n

In winter last year, it was also linked to the winter fuel payment, resulting in around around 60,000 extra awards of the benefit. But there is \u201cstill a long way to go,\u201d the committee report says.<\/p>\n

It also urged the Government to commit to a UK-wide, cross-government strategy for an ageing society to better target support and tackle pensioner poverty.<\/p>\n

The number of pensioners in relative low income began rising again in the 2010s, the cross-party group notes, reversing a decline from the 2000s. This was exacerbated by the recent cost of living<\/a> crisis, with 1.9 million pensioners (16 per cent) now living in relative poverty.<\/p>\n

Committee chairwoman Debbie Abrahams said: \u201cTo boost incomes, the Government needs to come up with a strategy to increase pension credit take-up. It\u2019s a scandal that so many have missed out for so many years, often through an aversion to claiming benefits altogether, or lack of support.<\/p>\n

\"Committee<\/p>\n

Committee chairwoman Debbie Abrahams said low pension credit take up is a \u201cscandal\u201d (Jeff Overs\/BBC\/PA) (PA Media)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fairness of the pensions credit eligibility criteria where if you are a penny above the threshold, you miss out on thousands of pounds, also needs to be looked at.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, the Government should decide what it thinks is enough for a dignified retirement<\/a>, and then work to ensure that all pensioners are on at least that level.<\/p>\n

A government spokesperson said: \u201cSupporting pensioners is a top priority, and thanks to our commitment to the Triple Lock, millions will see their yearly State Pension rise by \u00a31,900 this parliament. We have also run the biggest-ever campaign to boost Pension Credit take-up, with nearly 60,000 extra pensioner households being awarded the benefit, worth on average around \u00a34,300 a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we know there is a real risk that tomorrow\u2019s pensioners will be poorer than today\u2019s, which is why we are reviving the Pension Commission, to tackle the barriers that stop too many people from saving.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The government has been told it needs to make major changes to a pension-age benefit claimed by millions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,23022,186,21624,184,185,23021,23023],"class_list":{"0":"post-22872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-debbie-abrahams","12":"tag-finance","13":"tag-pension-credit","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance","16":"tag-relative-poverty","17":"tag-the-government"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}