Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact on levels of pensioner poverty among mixed-age couples of the requirement that both members of a couple must have reached State Pension age in order to be eligible for Pension Credit or pension-age Housing Benefit.

Ensuring that individuals can get into, progress and stay in work is important in helping them to continue saving for their own retirement and contribute to the wider economy.

The requirement for mixed age couples to seek financial support from the working-age social security system until both members of the couple reach State Pension Age ensures that, once in receipt of Universal Credit, the younger partner can access the same employment support that is available for customers below State Pension Age including dedicated employment support for customers over the age of 50. The pension-age partner is placed in the no-work related requirements group.

The Government recognises the critical role Universal Credit has to play in tackling poverty and making work pay and is taking important steps to support people with their living costs. For the first time ever, we have introduced a sustained above inflation increase to the Universal Credit standard allowance for all claimants. From April 2026, this will see the standard allowance uprated by 3.8%, followed by a further 2.3%.