To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the take-up rate is of pension credit in Wimbledon. (114903)

The information is not available in the format requested. Estimates of eligibility, and therefore of take-up, are not available below the level of Great Britain.

The latest estimates of the number of pensioners in Great Britain entitled to pension credit were published in “Pension Credit Estimates of Take-Up in 2004/2005”. A copy of the report is available in the Library.

Actual figures for receipt of pension credit at constituency level are available. As at August 2006 2,280 households in Wimbledon were receiving pension credit.

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 is the latest available figure which is taken from the GMS scan at 1 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. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the 2005 postcode directory.

4. Household recipients 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 (CMS) Pension Credit scan taken as at 1 September 2006.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many compensatory payments were made in respect of pension credits in each of the last five years to Wimbledon residents; and what the cost was. (114904)

The information requested is not available.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the (a) new thresholds will be for the savings credit element of pension credit for April and (b) maximum levels of income will be above which pensioners would not gain from pension savings credit for (i) single people and (ii) couples; and if he will make a statement. (115348)

On 7 December 2006 I announced the proposed benefit rates for 2007. The full list of provisional benefit rates were set out in the Secretary of State's written statement on 11 December 2006. The 2007 rates will remain provisional until the Social Security Up-rating Order 2007 has been cleared by Parliament.

The provisional savings credit threshold figures from April 2007 are £87.30 for single people and £139.60 for couples. The provisional rates will allow for single people to have up to around £167 and couples to have up to around £245 and still qualify for pension credit savings credit. If someone is severely disabled or a carer or has certain housing costs they may have higher levels of income and still qualify for pension credit.