Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to (a) make automatic pension credit payments to people who are eligible and (b) improve data sharing between government bodies involved in the administration of those payments.

For a means-tested benefit, such as Pension Credit, eligibility and award amounts are determined by a claimant’s specific circumstances – including their income, savings, capital assets, marital status or household composition. These details are not necessarily always previously known to government.

Given this complexity in the decision-making process, it is not possible to make automatic Pension Credit payments to those who might be entitled with sufficient accuracy.

Government departments do share data to support the effective and accurate administration of DWP benefits, including Pension Credit.