Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will estimate the number of pensioners that would be lifted out of poverty if take-up of means-tested benefits was 100 per cent.

An up-to-date estimate of the number of pensioners that would be lifted out of poverty if take-up of means-tested benefits was 100 per cent is not available. The latest estimate available, published in 2011 (PQ 33325, Official Report, 13 January 2011, column 429W), showed that an estimated 600,000 pensioners would be lifted out of poverty if take-up of means-tested benefits was 100 per cent. It should be noted, however, that given that there have been changes to the policy context, the level of pensioner poverty, and in the wider economy over the period, this figure is likely to have changed since then.