Due to pension credit no pensioner need live on less than £124.05 per week (£6,451 per year) in 2008-09, compared to £67.05 per week in 1996-97 (£3,487 per year).
The pension credit take-up target for 2008-09 is to deliver an annualised value of new successful pension credit applications of £767 million and to secure at least 250,000 successful new pension credit applications, an increase of 15,000 on this year’s target.
We want as many people as possible to take up the benefits they are entitled to, which is why we have simplified the application process and focussed on encouraging people to apply.
The following table shows the percentage of pensioners with net income in each income band:
Scotland UK Up to £5,200 4 6 £5,200 to £10,400 39 34 £10,400 to £20,800 44 43 £20,800 to £40,000 12 14 Over £40,000 2 3 Notes: 1. Net income before housing costs is gross income less income tax payments, national insurance contributions, contributions to occupational and private pension schemes, local taxes, maintenance and child support payments, and parental contributions to children living away from home. 2. Based on survey data and as such subject to a degree of sampling and non sampling error. 3. All figures are rounded to the nearest 1 per cent. Figures may not sum to 100 per cent. due to rounding. 4. Due to the small sample sizes involved in estimates below a national level, three year’s data have been combined and the income band has been deflated to the appropriate year’s prices. 5. A pensioner unit is either a single person over pension age or a couple in which at least one person is over pension age. 6. Figures for Scotland are estimated by combining three year’s data from 2003-04 to 2005-06. Figures for the UK are based on 2005-06 data. Reliable estimates of the percentage of pensioners receiving between £40,000 and £80,000 per year and over £80,000 per year are not possible with the data source, so the two groups have been combined. Source: Family Resources Survey