Fresh approach needed to benefits

Billions are going unclaimed

The government must step up efforts to get more pensioners to claim benefits, the Public Accounts Committee has said.

Nearly a third of pensioners who are eligible for Pension Credit - up to 1.6 million people - are not claiming it.

New thinking was needed to increase take-up, including allowing pensioners to claim linked benefits through a single transaction, the Committee said.

But Committee chairman Edward Leigh said that "good progress" had been made of late in boosting take-up.

Missed target

More pensioners claim Pension Credit than its predecessor, the Minimum Income Guarantee.

The truth is that the Department's approaches to encourage take-up of benefits are suffering from the law of diminishing returns Edward Leigh MP

However, the Committee said that the government's 2006 target of 3 million pensioners receiving Pension Credit had been missed by a margin of 300,000 people.

It added that the Department for Work and pensions (DWP) was likely to miss its 2008 take-up target too.

Overall, though, since 2003-04 the take-up of Pension Credit had risen from 61% of those eligible to 69%, owing to better co-ordination across government.

But the Committee noted that the take-up of other key benefits such as housing and council tax benefit was actually falling.

"The truth is that the Department's approaches to encourage take-up of benefits are suffering from the law of diminishing returns," said Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts.

"Many pensioners suffer from privation, and new and imaginative thinking is needed to encourage them to claim the benefits which can make a big difference to their quality of life," he added.