§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is her current estimate of(a) the numbers of persons eligible for benefit who do not take up their entitlement and (b) the total value of unclaimed benefits. [9044]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyOur pensions review will examine the central areas of insecurity for today's pensioners, one in four of whom have to rely on income support or, even worse, fail to receive it.
Our latest estimate is that around one in five people eligible for up to £3.5 billion in income-related benefits do not claim. We are particularly concerned about the position of up to 1 million pensioners not claiming their apparent income support entitlement and we are commissioning research to find out why.