(2) what estimate he has made of the amount of unclaimed (a) guarantee pension credit and (b) savings pension credit (i) in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, (ii) on Teesside and (iii) in the north-east;
(3) many pensioners (a) in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, (b) on Teesside and (c) in the north-east are entitled to claim (i) the guarantee pension credit and (ii) the savings pension credit.
Estimates of eligibility and therefore take-up and amounts of unclaimed benefit are not available below the level of Great Britain. It is not therefore possible to say how many people are eligible to pension credit, what the take-up rate is or what amount of pension credit is unclaimed in the geographical areas specified in the questions.
Latest estimates of the amount of pension credit left unclaimed and the number of pensioners who were eligible for pension credit in Great Britain were published in ‘Pension Credit Estimates of Take-Up in 2005/2006’. A copy of the report is available in the Library.
The following table shows the number of households in the north-east, Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency and Tees Valley district local authorities receiving pension credit.
Region Total Guarantee credit only Guarantee credit and savings credit Savings credit only North-east 157,270 37,680 81,370 38,220 Tees Valley district local authorities Hartlepool 6,220 1,490 3,140 1,590 Middlesbrough 8,290 2,330 4,170 1,790 Redcar and Cleveland 8,100 2,100 3,970 2,030 Stockton-on-Tees 9,260 2,340 4,520 2,400 Darlington 5,510 1,460 2,670 1,370 Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency 5,140 1,230 2,630 1,270 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 2 March 2007. 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 relevant postcode directory and are therefore based on the 2005 parliamentary boundaries. 4. 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 2 March 2007.