Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the uptake of Pension Credit in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.

To raise awareness of Pension Credit and increase take-up, the Department launched a nationwide marketing and communications campaign in April 2022.

This campaign has included advertising on national TV; in regional and national newspapers (including Birmingham Mail and Coventry Telegraph); on local and national broadcast radio (stations such as Capital Birmingham, Free Radio Birmingham and Coventry, Greatest Hits Radio Coventry and Heart West Midlands); on medical centre and Post Office screens across Great Britain; as well as advertising on buses and digital street displays. Online marketing activity also included promotion of Pension Credit on social media, via internet search engines and sponsored advertising on targeted websites that pensioners, their friends and family are likely to visit.

There is a strong indication that the campaign has had a positive impact and has resulted in an unprecedented number of Pension Credit applications. The number of claims received in the financial year 2022-23 was more than 80% higher than over the same period the year before.

Latest available figures also show that more households were receiving Pension Credit in August 2023 than in May 2022 – at the beginning of the campaign.

The Department is also continuing to build on this success through various creative no-cost media campaigns to boost awareness of the benefit through broadcast, radio and print media. We are engaging with a range of stakeholders, including other Government Departments, Councils, and charities, asking for their support to raise awareness through their networks and channels.