Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pension credit claims there have been since the announcement on introducing means-testing for free TV licences for people aged over 75.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The total number of Pension Credit Claims made since introduction of means testing for free TV licences for people aged over 75 from 1st August 2020 is 29,919.
Extract taken from Weekly Pensions Performance Report on 28th September 2020
Source: Weekly Data from CAM (Customer Account Manager)
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps Department is taking to maximise uptake of pension credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman
While over 1.5 million pensioners currently receive Pension Credit, the Government wants to make sure that all pensioners eligible can claim the Pension Credit to which they are rightly entitled. That is why in February this year we launched a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of Pension Credit and help dispel some of the misconceptions that people might have about Pension Credit eligibility.
We are also continuing to work with our stakeholders all across the UK, to help spread the key messages from the campaign because we know that often the best ways to reach eligible pensioners is through trusted stakeholders working in the local community. Our online Pension Credit toolkit (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit) has been updated with the recent awareness campaign materials to supplement the resources it already contains for those working with pensioners, such as guides to Pension Credit and information designed to help older people understand how they could get Pension Credit.
In May this year we also launched an online claim service for Pension Credit to supplement the existing telephone and postal claim services (https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit). The new online service enables pensioners to apply for Pension Credit at a time that suits them.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pension credit claims there were in each of the last 12 months for which data is available; and what the outcome was of those pension credit claims over that period.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The number of Pension Credit claims received in the last 12 months is shown in table 1 below:
Table 1
Oct-19 | Nov-19 | Dec-19 | Jan-20 | Feb-20 | Mar-20 |
10,645 | 8,318 | 6,615 | 8,540 | 9,574 | 12,557 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Apr-20 | May-20 | Jun-20 | Jul-20 | Aug-20 | Sep-20 |
9,567 | 8,613 | 9,004 | 17,087 | 14,865 | 15,054 |
Extract taken from Weekly Pensions Performance Report on 28th September 2020
Source: Weekly Data from CAM (Customer Account Manager)
The figure includes both successful and unsuccessful Pension Credit claims.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what provision there is for his Department to sublet property covered by its Prime contract.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Under the PRIME Contract DWP has ability to sublet space that it no longer requires, however DWP always looks first at handing back any surplus space to our accommodation partner Telereal Trillium (TT) utilising the provisions of the Contract to vacate space and reduce running costs. If this is not possible a sublet can be agreed and TT act as our agents in agreeing and managing the sub-let on DWP’s behalf, for which they receive a management fee.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many properties are covered by his Department's Prime contract.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
There are 846 properties covered by the PRIME contract.