Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she plans to take to help prevent people from living in poverty in later life.

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

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. The full yearly amount of the basic State Pension will have risen by over £2,300 since 2010. The Government has committed to implementing the Triple Lock in the usual way for the remainder of the Parliament.

There are currently around 1.4m pensioners claiming some £5bn of Pension Credit which provides financial support to help with day-to-day living costs for people over State Pension age and on a low income and acts as passport to a range of additional support, including help with rent and Council Tax, as well as energy bills.

In addition to these current measures, to reduce the risk of poverty for future pensioners, automatic enrolment into workplace pensions has transformed pension participation for millions of workers. To date, over 10.7 million people have been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension, with over 2 million employers complying with their duties. With these changes, an estimated additional real terms £33 billion was saved into workplace pensions in 2021 compared to 2012.

Furthermore, the Mid-Life MOT helps people plan for employment in later life and a financially secure retirement, through reviewing their finances, health and skills. Following the success of tests delivered through ten Local Enterprise Partnerships in 2021, the Government has announced a £5m expansion of the Mid-life MOT initiative. As part of the expansion, Mid-life MOTs will be delivered online, in the private sector and through the Department for Work and Pensions national network of jobcentres. Further detail was announced in a Written Ministerial Statement on 6 July 2022 which can be found here.

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2022-07-06/hcws183