To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what criteria are used to determine whether pension credit is eligible to be backdated. (102258)

Pension credit can be claimed up to 12 months from the date of entitlement. In practice this means that a claimant who claims today can ask for his claim to be considered from a date up to 12 months before. Provided the claimant satisfied the normal entitlement conditions during that time, pension credit will be paid for the past period.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in the UK are in receipt of pension credit; and what the average payment received is. (102262)

2.7 million households in Great Britain were receiving pension credit as at August 2006, with an average weekly payment of £46.84.

In Northern Ireland Pension Credit administration is a matter for the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Notes:

1. The figure provided is an early estimate. The preferred data source for figures supplied by DWP is the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS). However, the figure provided isthe latest available figure which is taken from the GMS scan at1 September 2006. These are adjusted using the historical relationship between WPLS and GMS data to give an estimate of the final WPLS figure.

2. Caseloads are rounded to the nearest 10.

3. Households are those people who claim pension credit either for themselves only or on behalf of a household.

Source:

DWP 100 per cent data from the Generalised Matching Service (GMS) Pension Credit scan taken as at 1 September 2006.