Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the financial effect on mixed-aged couples where the older member of the couple reaches pension age and the couple are unable to claim pension credit or pension age housing benefit and must instead claim universal credit.

In 2012 both houses of Parliament debated at length and then agreed changes to the welfare policies. This resulted in the Welfare Reform Act of 2012.

Under provisions in the Welfare Reform Act 2012, Parliament decided that pension-age income-related benefits would no longer be available to couples before both partners have reached State Pension age. These changes took effect from 15 May 2019.

The average weekly reduction in the amount of income related benefit received amongst the estimated number of couples who would have been entitled to Pension Credit and/or pension age Housing Benefit without the policy change is estimated to be approximately £70 per week (to the nearest £10) in 2019/20.

The estimated average weekly notional reduction is calculated by taking the estimated annual expenditure savings from the policy change and dividing by the estimated number of mixed age couples who would have been entitled to Pension Credit and/or pension age Housing Benefit without the policy change.

No mixed age couples who were receiving Pension Credit and/or pension age Housing Benefit immediately before the implementation date of 15 May 2019, would see a reduction in the amount of benefit they receive as a result of the policy change (unless their entitlement to both those benefits subsequently ends).

An annual notional reduction would depend on the length of time in a year that an individual couple would have claimed Pension Credit and/or pension age Housing Benefit, as well as any difference in a couple’s level of support on Universal Credit compared to pensioner income-related benefits, both of which will reflect individual circumstantial changes and behavioural choices.