I didn’t notice it in the article - does anyone have detail as to why pensioners who are entitled to the pensioners credits aren’t receiving them?
A big reason for this disastrous outcome is that more than one in three pensioners entitled to Pension Credit, the qualifying benefit for WFP under this proposal, don’t receive it, a proportion that’s been roughly constant for many years
Absolutely not doubting the validity of this report and the potential impact. I am just not understanding why the people who are entitled to a benefit are not receiving it? If this credit then enables the recipients to get WFP, could AgeUK or some other agency assist these people with applying for it?
Any benefit where you have to apply for it is going to have these issues. People either don’t know about it, don’t want to be seen as scroungers, are too disabled to apply…
Probably a case of people not knowing they’re entitled
Additionally, the previous governments made it really hard to apply for benefits, even if you’re entitled.
As a follow up, if we assumed everyone entitled did receive it, would that completely clear out the concerns AgeUK have raised? Or are there other problems?
It would definitely go a long way to helping. The problem is that, while a lot of Labour’s policies have been “holistic” this has been rather rushed and all the necessary parts of the puzzle aren’t in place.
To pull this off you’d need:
- Far better uptake of Pension Credit - I may run a quick informal “class” in my local at the weekend (we’ve previously done things like screenshots and reaction emojis).
- A New Green Deal focused on those receiving benefits, the elderly in energy inefficient housing and renters.
That would get address a lot of the concerns raised but would require medium to long term changes. Perhaps an appeals process could help sort out those who fall between various stools.
Labour said fuck the old and disabled and that’s basically that.
It reads more like, the WFP being used more specifically for those who need it, instead of giving it to everyone, and AgeUK raising concerns about not all pensioners are getting the benefits they are entitled to? But if they did apply, it wouldn’t be an issue
Thanks!
