More Than 28,000 Hampshire Pensioners To Miss Benefit On Government Plans

9.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 15th Jul 2003

More than 28,000 Hampshire pensioners are set to lose £15 a week because the Government is not informing them fully of their right to the new pension credit.

Hampshire MEP Chris Huhne said that the Labour Government is planning that only 73 per cent of pensioners will take up the new pension credit designed to replace the minimum income guarantee in October.

'Of the 105,000 eligible pensioners in Hampshire, the Government is projecting that more than 28,000 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'.

Hampshire's Liberal Democrat parliamentarians are campaigning for higher take-up of the new benefit and warning of problems to come.

David Chidgey, Eastleigh's 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 place 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'

Notes to editors: There are 300,000 pensioners in Hampshire (taking Hampshire county council, Southampton UA and Portsmouth UA) of which about 105,000 are estimated to be eligible for the new pension credit. On the basis of the Government's plans for take-up, just 73 per cent will claim by the end of 2006 and 27 per cent - more than 28,000 in Hampshire - will not. In Eastleigh, there are 18700 people of pension age, of which some 6600 are estimated to be eligible for pension credit, and the Government plans that 1800 will fail to take it up.

Ends