To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what types of personal information required to support claims for (a) pension credit, (b) housing benefit and (c) council tax benefit will not be required in the future; and what assessment he has made of the effects of a reduction in the volume of information required on the time taken to (i) process such claims and (ii) clear the backlog in claims processing. (204950)

We have already reduced duplication in the provision of personal information for people claiming housing benefit and council tax benefit over the phone with pension credit. The Pension Service fill in a short claim form on the customer's behalf and the income and savings information supplied for the pension credit application is used for the housing benefit and council tax benefit claim.

And from October 2008, we are proposing to further streamline this claims process, so that no claim form for housing benefit or council tax benefit will be required. The housing benefit and council tax benefit information will be collected by the Pension Service and automatically passed to the relevant local authority to assess entitlement.

There are no proposals to change the types of personal information that are required to process claims for pension credit, housing benefit or council tax benefit. However, the types of personal information required to process claims to pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit are kept under review to ensure that where possible requirements are simplified relieving the burden on customers, whilst continuing to protect public funds.