Jessica Morden Jessica Morden - Labour MP for Newport East, Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons and PPS to Keir Starmer
We need urgent action from the government to ensure that older people receive the Pension Credit they are entitled to.
Independent Age estimate that 1.15 million pensioner households are missing out on Pension Credit. In Newport East, this equates to nearly £3.5 million of Pension Credit not being taken up across 1,531 households.
Pension Credit, introduced by the Labour Government in 2003, was designed to keep pensioners out of poverty and make a difference towards costs of basic necessities, such as the weekly shop or heating the house.
I fully support Independent Age’s call on the Government to create a comprehensive action plan to boost take-up, with improved targets and up-to-date research into why the money is not getting to households that need it. The DWP’s recent awareness campaign on Pension Credit simply has not gone far enough – it is unacceptable that £2.5 billion of Pension Credit is being returned to Government funds each year whilst 2 million pensioners live in poverty.
#CreditWhereItsDue