Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to National Audit Office's Department for Work & Pensions Departmental Overview 2021-22, for what reason her Department spent less on Pension Credit in the 2021-22 financial year than the previous financial year.

The Pension Credit caseload continues to decrease year-on-year. This trend is reflected in the decrease in expenditure between 2020/21 and 2021/22 (from around £5bn to £4.8bn).

The falling caseload is due to a number of factors, including, since 2010, the increase in the Pension Credit qualifying age, which is linked to women’s State Pension age; the introduction of the new State Pension on 6 April 2016, and the abolition of the savings credit component for those reaching State Pension on or after that date.