Many hundreds of thousands of people miss out on benefits
DWP permanent secretary Peter Schofield spoke about his department’s work(Image: Parliament TV)
The DWP has spoken about changes to how people submit applications for their benefits. Department officials recently discussed their work with MPs, including projects underway to encourage people to claim the support they’re eligible for.
Peter Schofield, permanent secretary at the DWP, informed the Work and Pensions Committee that his team is intensifying efforts to prompt people to submit applications to get their benefits. One significantly underclaimed DWP benefit is Pension Credit, which assists people of state pension age with low income.
DWP statistics for the 2024/2025 tax year indicated that more than 910,000 people were failing to claim the benefit despite being eligible. Mr Schofield told the committee: “We have been working to encourage more people to apply for Pension Credit.”
He explained there has been a shift in how people typically submit applications for the benefit. The senior civil servant explained: “Now only around 10 percent of people apply using the paper form and the paper form has been superseded for most people by telephony or by an online channel.
“The problem with the paper form, and I know it has been referred to a number of times, is with 200 questions and all the rest of it, but a lot of those are because you have to put in questions to relate to certain circumstances that might not otherwise apply.
“If you have a child in your claim, you must fill in a certain number of questions; if you have a disability, you have to fill in a certain number of questions. If you have a second child, that adds another set of questions.”
However, he explained you can sidestep some of these complications if you complete your application online or over the phone. Mr Schofield explained: “With the online or the telephony channel we just take you to the questions that you need to answer that are relevant to you.
“That makes the whole process much more streamlined and enables us to get through the claims more quickly. We are now in a good position with very low outstanding heads of work on our Pension Credit system.”
How much is Pension Credit?
The typical Pension Credit claim is worth £4,300 a year in support, with the benefit potentially including a top-up to your income and access to other Government help. The income top-up is referred to as ‘Guarantee Credit’, and increases your income to up to £227.10 a week for single claimants and up to £346.60 a week if you have a partner.
You can get additional amounts on top of this depending on your circumstances. For instance, you could be eligible for an extra £82.90 a week if you live with a severe disability and you could be paid an additional £46.40 a week if you care for another adult.
The DWP was asked for an update about its work to contact people to encourage them to apply. A DWP spokesperson said: “We want all pensioners to get the support they are rightly entitled to and our biggest ever Pension Credit take-up campaign has seen a record number of claims with nearly 60,000 extra awards this year.
“To help boost claims, we have also undertaken a new trial with Age UK and Independent Age, which targets pensioners who are most likely to be eligible for Pension Credit but not currently claiming the benefit.”
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