§ The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr. Andrew Smith)I can now report further progress on the take-up of pension credit, which became payable on 6 October. I can also report the publication today of new research by my Department looking at pensioners' motivations and barriers to claiming the minimum income guarantee (MIG), the predecessor to pension credit, and their likely reactions to the new entitlement. Figures represent the period up to 31 October 2003, unless stated otherwise.
There are now 1.97 million pensioner households (around 2.3 million individuals) on our systems being paid pension credit, including 82,000 new pension credit households (over 96,000 individuals) in October. As at 17 October, there are over 1.2 million households (around 1.4 million individuals) now receiving more money as a result of the introduction of pension credit. The pension credit application line, at our four sites across the country, has received 1.3 million calls since it became operational on 7 April and 370,000 signed applications have been returned to pension centres. The average pension credit award is £47.10 per week.
18WSOur direct mail campaign is continuing, supported by a major advertising campaign on TV and in the press which began in September. We are continuing to work with partner organisations, such as Help The Aged, Age Concern and Citizens Advice, among others, both at a national and local level, to encourage eligible people to take up their entitlement.
There is plenty of time for pensioners to apply for pension credit. To ensure that pensioners do not lose out, there is a 12 month backdating provision until October 2004. This will allow applications to be backdated to October 2003, where entitlement exists, or to the date entitlement begins if this is later.
I am placing in the Library a set of charts and tables showing progress so far, including regional breakdowns of the number of pension credit households. Copies are also available for hon. Members in the Vote Office. From this month onwards, I will provide monthly progress reports on take-up of pension credit.
A copy of the research report "Entitled but not claiming?: Pensioners, the Minimum Income Guarantee and Pension Credit" (DWP Research Report No. 197) has also been placed in the Library. The aims of the research were to further understand barriers to MIG take-up (and, potentially, pension credit take-up), in order to help identify ways of overcoming them, to explore likely reactions to the new pension credit, before its introduction, and to provide data to improve my Department's estimates of take-up of MIG.