Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the total value of unclaimed benefits in each of the last seven years.

The Department publishes ‘Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up’ statistics annually.

The latest statistics, which cover 2009/10 to 2015/16, are published here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-201516

These statistics provide estimates of take-up, by caseload and expenditure, of the following income-related benefits only (other benefits are available but no take-up estimates are calculated):

• Pension Credit
• Housing Benefit
• Income Support and Employment and Support Allowance (income-related)
• Jobseeker’s Allowance (income-based)

They also provide the total and average amounts of benefit claimed and unclaimed for each of these benefits.

Estimates for 2010/11 and 2011/12 were not produced; the estimates for 2016/17 will be published in May/June this year.