§ Mr. HurstTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the proportion of claimants for pension credit who will receive payment at the commencement of the scheme. [115397]
§ Malcolm WicksWe have a Public Service Agreement target that pension credit should be in payment to at least three million pensioner households by 2006. The current 1.8 million recipients of MIG will be automatically converted to pension redit and will start to receive payment from when it is introduced in October 2003. In addition we are writing to 20 per cent. of pensioner households inviting them to make advance claims and expect the vast majority of successful claims to be in payment by October 2003. No-one will lose out because they have not made an advance application. All those who apply before October 2004, if they're entitled will receive payment as though they had claimed at the very start, or to the first day they could have qualified, if later.