§ Mr. LawsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the take-up rate for the pension credit is in each constituency; and how many people are(a) eligible for and (b) claiming pension credit, broken down by constituency. [135965]
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§ Mr. BrowneThe information is not available in the format requested. Approximately half of all pensioner households across Great Britain are eligible for Pension Credit and stand to gain on average £400 a year. Around 1.9 million Pension Credit awards have already been made to pensioner households across Great Britain as a whole (helping more than 2 million individuals).
The Government have a target for at least 3 million pensioner households to be in receipt of Pension Credit by 2006. We want all those eligible for Pension Credit to take up their entitlement.
We intend to publish monthly reports on the progress of Pension Credit take-on, which will include information on the number of applications. The first such report will be published later this month.