---

Dept for Work and Pensions

Answer

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many phone calls have been made by the Pension Service informing pensioners of pension credit in each month since October 2003; [221764] (2) how many pensioners in each parliamentary constituency, having been invited to explore the possibility that they may be eligible for pension credit through an unsolicited call from the Pension Service or other agency for which his Department is responsible (a) went on to make a successful application for pension credit and (b) did not go on to make a successful application for pension credit; [221776] (3) how many pensioners in each parliamentary constituency have received telephone calls since September 2003 from the Pension Service or other agencies for which his Department is responsible, inviting them to explore the possibility that they may be eligible for pension credit; [221777] (4) how many telephone calls the Pension Service has made since September 2004 to invite pensioners to explore the possibility that they may be eligible for pension credit (a) after 6.30 pm on weekdays and (b) at weekends; and to which parliamentary constituencies those calls were made; [221778] (5) how many pensioners in each parliamentary constituency have since October 2004 received (a) telephone calls and (b) letters from the Pension Service or other agencies for which his Department is responsible, inviting them to explore the possibility that they may be eligible for pension credit; [221779] (6) what criteria are used by (a) the Pension Service and (b) other agencies for which his Department has responsibility to identify and approach people who have not applied for pension credit but might be eligible for it. [221780] Malcolm Wicks: The table shows the number of calls about pension credit made by staff in the pension credit application line between April 2004, when such calls were first made, and February 2005. These calls were not made `cold' but were either to pensioners who were judged likely to be eligible for pension credit to ask if they wish to apply, or to those who had been sent a completed application form to sign and return but had not yet done so. All those who receive a telephone call would already have received at least one letter about pension credit, including one informing them that a call might be made. It is not possible to break down the figures by constituency or the time at which they were made. Some calls about pension credit have also been made by departmental staff outside the pension credit application line. Figures for these are not available. The Pension Service uses a range of data to identify those who are potentially eligible for pension credit, including age, gender, marital status, receipt of housing benefit and council tax benefit and an affluence measure based on postcode. Information on the number of people who received a telephone call and went on to make a successful or unsuccessful application for pension credit is not available. The Pension Service issued 807,000 letters about pension credit between 1 October 2004 and 11 March 2005. Outbound telephone calls made by the pension credit application line, April 2004 to February 2005 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Month Calls in which the relevant Calls not answered Total calls made pensioner was contacted April 2004 20,473 17,624 38,097 May 2004 30,423 29,797 60,220 June 2004 15,150 13,726 28,876 July 2004 27,087 26,122 53,209 August 2004 30,049 39,464 69,513 September 2004 21,640 27,909 49,549 October 2004 18,279 19,264 37,543 November 2004 26,770 29,423 56,193 December 2004 55,638 66,046 121,684 January 2005 58,950 62,190 121,140 February 2005 35,416 38,418 73,834 Total 339,875 369,983 709,858 _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

432 c1259-61W;432 c1257-8W; 221764;221776;221777;221778;221779;221780

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Eligibility Pension credit Pensioners Pensions Publicity Recipients

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk