I am proud to have signed up to become a Pension Credit Champion, supporting the charity Independent Age’s campaign on Pension Credit take-up in my constituency of Dundee West.
New research from the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University, commissioned by Independent Age, has found that the low take-up of Pension Credit is creating significant knock-on effects for the NHS and social care, costing taxpayers an estimated £4 billion per year.
Only around 61% of people who are eligible to receive Pension Credit get it. This rate has been stagnant for almost a decade and is one of the lowest take-up levels for an income related benefit.
I am supporting Independent Age’s calls for the Department for Work and Pensions to put in place an ambitious, publicly available action plan detailing how it will work to increase the uptake of Pension Credit over the next five years.
I signed up as a Pension Credit Champion because I want to see every older person who is entitled to Pension Credit receive it. Together, we can work to find a sustainable solution to redress low uptake of this important lifeline for people in later life and reduce the incidence of poverty significantly.
Chris Law 