760,000 state pensioners miss out on free £1,900 handout from DWP

There were more eligible pensioners claiming pension credit than the previous year – but there are still hundreds of thousands who may be at risk of losing the Winter Fuel Allowance from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) which is worth £300.

Hundreds of thousands of pensioners are missing out on Pension Credit worth nearly £2,000. There were more eligible pensioners claiming pension credit than the previous year – but there are still hundreds of thousands who may be at risk of losing the Winter Fuel Allowance from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) which is worth £300.

Up to 760,000 pensioner households who were entitled to receive Pension Credit did not claim the benefit between April 2022 and March 2023. Joanna Elson, chief executive of Independent Age, said the latest figures are “disappointing”.

“Behind these statistics are real people who are worrying about whether they will be able to afford next month’s bills. Each year, our Independent Age advisers hear from thousands of older people living in financial hardship who are forced to make decisions such as whether to wash in warm water or eat fresh vegetables,” she said.

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“During April 2022 and March 2023, the country was going through a cost of living crisis which hit older people on low incomes particularly hard as their income failed to keep up with rising prices,” Elson said.

Alex Clegg, an economist at the Resolution Foundation, called the uptick “particularly encouraging given that pension credit is now used to passport eligibility to winter fuel payments”. He said he expects take-up to increase further in light of this.

“The government must continue to actively boost the take up of pension credit in order to mitigate the impact of the cut on poorer pensioners currently set to lose much-needed support this winter,” Clegg said. Around three in 10 people eligible for pension credit did not claim it that financial year.

It means that up to £1.5bn of available pension credit went unclaimed, amounting to a loss of around £1,900 per year for every eligible household which did not claim pension credit. And Ms Elson added: “We need an innovative, evidence-based, long-term benefits take-up strategy that maps out how older people living in, or on the edge of, poverty can access the financial support they are entitled to. With winter around the corner, now is the time to bring those who most need it back in from the cold.”