I’m backing renewed efforts to tackle pensioner poverty by encouraging entitlement take-up and am keen to highlight important information garnered at a recent Parliamentary event hosted by Independent Age on this subject.
Independent Age are a national charity for older people in financial hardship, and their new research report launched this month is entitled ‘The Only Way is Up: The impact of improved entitlement take-up on pensioner poverty and healthcare spending’.
It highlights the positive impact that improved benefit take-up would have on tackling financial hardship for the 1.7 million older people currently living in poverty across the UK. Many older people don’t receive this support, despite being eligible and in desperate need of it. For example, more than £2.5 billion in Pension Credit alone is not reaching people in later life.
In Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, only 2,051 people are receiving Pension Credit, meaning thousands are missing out on this benefit.
I’m pleased that in Scotland, the Scottish Government are very proactive about running campaigns to maximise pensioners’ incomes through partnerships with charities, urging older people to check their eligibility and apply for reserved benefits like Pension Credit. Eligible pensioners can also claim the Pension Age Disability Payment in Scotland, with this devolved benefit already helping some 186,000 pensioners in the first year since it was launched.
Meanwhile at Westminster, the SNP are pushing for targeted energy support which would be of huge benefit to pensioners here in the North-east of Scotland where we face harsh winters and keeping houses warm is a matter of life and death.
I’m committed to working across party political lines and governments to make sure people later in life receive the support that is available to them and lift as many older people living in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East out of poverty as we can.
Note: Photograph attached shows Seamus Logan MP and Morgan Vine, Director of Policy, Grants and Influencing at Independent Age.
