DWP launches ongoing Pension Credit awareness campaign

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) launched an ongoing campaign from April 2022 consisting of increased advertising to make people more aware that they could be entitled to Pension Credit¹. A separate DWP publication describes the same activity as a continuous campaign from April 2022 which saw increased advertising for the same purpose².

The campaign ran alongside a period in which measured take-up of Pension Credit moved in both directions. In the financial year ending (FYE) 2023, 65% of those entitled to Pension Credit claimed it, up from 63% in FYE 2022, and 78% of the total amount that could have been claimed was claimed, up from 73%². In FYE 2024, 62% of those entitled claimed it, a decrease from 65% in FYE 2023 that the department says is not statistically significant, while expenditure take-up fell to 71% from 78%, a difference it describes as statistically significant¹.

Non-take-up rose over the same period. In FYE 2023, up to 760,000 families entitled to Pension Credit did not claim, with up to £1.5 billion unclaimed, or around £1,900 a year on average for each family that did not claim². In FYE 2024, up to 910,000 families did not claim, up to £2.5 billion went unclaimed, and the average was around £2,600 a year¹.

The FYE 2024 figures incorporate improved linking of administrative data to the Family Resources Survey to better identify those in receipt of Pension Credit or Housing Benefit, and the department notes that users should be mindful of differences in data collection approaches when interpreting changes over recent years¹. Take-up rates also vary by household type: in FYE 2024 the caseload take-up rate was 67% for single males, 64% for single females and 48% for couples, down from 59% for couples in FYE 2023¹. For those aged under 75 it fell by 3 percentage points, from 68% to 65%, and for those aged 75 or over by 4 percentage points, from 64% to 60%¹.

Why it matters for households

Pension Credit is an income-related benefit, meaning a claimant's income and capital are considered when deciding entitlement¹. The figures cover Great Britain and relate to the pensioner population, with State Pension age at 66 for both men and women in FYE 2024¹. Since May 2019, both partners in a couple have had to reach State Pension age for a successful claim to income-related pension age benefits, which affects mixed age couples¹. Savings Credit was abolished for new pensioners from April 2016, and the department no longer publishes Savings Credit breakdowns because the remaining cases are too few to estimate with confidence¹.

The estimates describe how many entitled families claimed and how much they received, not the reasons for non-take-up. The department states that take-up may be affected by broad factors such as awareness of the benefit or the application procedure, awareness of entitlement, or perceived stigma, and that it does not have data in its modelling to explain non-take-up¹. Take-up statistics are not available below Great Britain level because survey sample sizes for entitled non-recipients are too small¹.

What happens next

The campaign is described as ongoing from April 2022, with no end date given¹. The next set of take-up estimates, for FYE 2025, has not been reported.