Eastleigh Help The Aged Launches Pensioners Campaign

9.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 25th Aug 2003

Chris Huhne MEP and David Chidgey MP visited the Help the Aged shop in Eastleigh town centre to highlight pensions awareness. Pictured l-r Anthony Waller from Help the Aged, David Chidgey MP, customers Edna Boyland and Rita Soper, Chris Huhne MEP, Sales Assistant Ellie Douglas and Shop Manager Jasmine Bills.

Hampshire MEP Chris Huhne and Eastleigh MP David Chidgey joined pensioners and campaigners at the Help the Aged office in Eastleigh to launch the campaign to make pensioners aware of their rights

More than 1,800 Eastleigh pensioners are set to lose £15 a week because the Government is not informing them fully of their right to the new pension credit, Mr Huhne said.

A third of pensioners are eligible for the new benefit, but that the Labour Government is planning that only three quarters of these pensioners will claim their new pension credit designed to replace the minimum income guarantee in October.

Mr Huhne joined David Chidgey MP at the Help the Aged offices in Leigh Road to campaign for more pensioners to claim.

'Of the 6,600 eligible pensioners in Eastleigh, the Government is projecting that more than 1,800 will fail to claim benefits that would make a crucial difference to their livelihoods by ensuring a minimum income of at least £102 a week for single people or £155.80 for couples' said Mr Huhne. 'For those on state pension who fail to claim, this means losing up to £14.79 a week for single people and £19.20 a week for couples'.

David Chidgey MP said: 'Over the past month, many constituents have come to me desperately worried about receiving their family tax credit. If this is a sign of things to come, many pensioners are going to be in dire straits when the new pension credit is introduced in October. The

Government must act now to ensure full resources are in lace to make sure pensioners get their money in good time'.

'Ministers are bungling the introduction of this new pension benefit exactly as they have bungled the family tax credit' said Chris Huhne MEP. 'Many of the most vulnerable pensioners will have to count pennies for month if they are unaware that they are entitled to the credit from October 6th. This is a complex system with huge potential to go wrong'.

'Government figures show that nationally just 1.1 million of the 4.1 million eligible households have so far signed up for the pension credit, and the Government has no advertising campaign planned until just weeks before the credit is introduced' said Mr Huhne.

Just one in five pensioners will receive letters telling them about the credit before October. The Government aims to have 1.8 million households ready to receive the credit by October, and for 2.8 million households to get their money by the end of 2004 rising to three million by 2006.

Gordon Lishman, the director general of Age Concern, said: 'The fact remains that even with 1.8 million transferred by October, the cash still needs to reach the pockets of another two million pensioner households. The Government's targets for take-up of pension credit are far too low. Targets must be more ambitious and must increase year on year. Otherwise, the Government will end up in credit and not pensioners'

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