Pension credit take up in Kingston "grinding to a halt"

Labour is failing some of our poorest pensioners

7.2.05

Kingston and Surbiton’s Liberal Democrat MP, Edward Davey, has discovered that there are an estimated 1,200 pensioner households in Kingston and Surbiton eligible for the new pension credit who are not receiving it.

The pension credit is designed to help pensioners on modest incomes get by, yet these figures show it is not going to the people who need it.

Commenting, Edward Davey MP said,

"The Labour Government should be ashamed that so many of this country’s poorest pensioners are still living so far beneath the poverty line. Things have gone from bad to worse with the new Pension Credit.

"These figures show that our worst fears are being realised - large numbers of vulnerable pensioners are set to miss out on the help they desperately need.

"Pensioners have lost their pension book under this Government and are now having to claim more and more complex benefits and credits, which many of the poorest don’t pick up.

"I believe we need to change the way pensioners get the help they need. The only guaranteed way is through a decent state pension, payable as of right.

"That is why Liberal Democrats would guarantee £100 a month more on the pension at 75, over £130 a month for couples over 75, lifting a million pensioners out of means-testing at a stroke. It would save millions on bureaucracy, and ensure the help actually gets to those who need it."