Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of pensioners who will be living in poverty during the winter of 2022-23.

It is not possible to produce a robust estimate of the number of pensioners who will be living in poverty during the winter 2022/23. Projecting poverty involves projecting forward the impact of the cost of living on every household’s income which is not possible to do with confidence.

The Government is committed to action that helps to alleviate levels of pensioner poverty.

In 2020/21 there were 400 thousand fewer pensioners in absolute poverty in the UK (both before and after housing costs) than in 2009/10.

We are forecast to spend over £134 billion on benefits for pensioners in 2022/23. This amounts to 5.4% of GDP. This includes spending on the State Pension which is forecast to be over £110bn in 2022/23.

On top of this, the government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The new “Energy Price Guarantee” will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October, saving the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 based on current energy prices from October. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.

This includes a one-off payment to pensioners households of £300 through and as an addition to the Winter Fuel Payment from November.

The government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of household essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England this will take the form of an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m. Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.