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Social Security

I thank my hon. Friend. His power to anticipate what I am going to say is legendary. He will be happy to know that I am about to turn to council tax benefit, but it may be useful for the record to reconfirm the respect that I had for him in the Standing Committee that considered the Welfare Reform Bill, where he brought together a wealth of excellent real world examples from his constituency of Windsor about the impact that benefit dependency has on his constituents. He was able to throw an interesting sidelight on how Government changes, which are sometimes dry, complicated and boring to many people, affect people at the sharp end, so I am grateful to him, as ever. The doubling in fuel poverty among pensioners since 2004 is something that the Minister would, I think, like to comment on. In the interests of balance, he can wheel out the statistics about improvements made, but what about the rather unfortunate record on fuel poverty? Tackling pensioner poverty must continue to be a top priority for any Government: the current Government and, I trust, a future Conservative Government, led by my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney—who, as I said, has done a fantastic job in raising awareness about social justice and welfare issues in the 12 months since he took up his position. In 2004-05 there were 1.8 million pensioners living in poverty. Let us not forget—this is a critical new point—that there were 1.6 million pensioners not claiming the pension credit to which they were entitled. I do not wish to stray out of order in any way, Mr. Deputy Speaker, but one cannot have a sensible discussion about the uprating of these benefits, particularly as they relate to pensioners, without understanding that the other part of the equation is the take-up of the benefits that are the subject of the order. It may interest the House to know that in November 2004 the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions said:"““The Government still has a take-up problem on pension credit.””" Although that was over two years ago, nothing has been said or done to suggest that the problem has gone away or otherwise been dealt with. The new estimates for benefit take-up were announced in October 2006. The figures do not extend beyond 2004-05, but according to the 2006 Department for Work and Pensions reports ““Income Related Benefits—Estimates of Take-Up in 2003/2004”” and ““Pension Credit—Estimates of Take-Up in 2004/2005”” the percentage of pensioner couples entitled to just the guaranteed pension credit who received it fell from a range of 61 to 75 per cent. in 2003-04 to a range of 55 to 68 per cent. in 2004-05. In 2003-04, 53 per cent. of pensioners entitled to pension credit but not claiming it were below the poverty line as set by the Government. According to the National Audit Office report ““Progress in Tackling Pensioner Poverty: Encouraging Take-Up of Entitlements””, if pension credit take-up were increased by just under a third—30 per cent.—to a level similar to that for housing benefit, about 320,000 pensioners could be lifted out of poverty according to the Government’s own measure of that. Almost a third of a million pensioners would be lifted out of poverty if the take-up of that benefit, which is a subject of this order, were increased. The order also refers to council tax benefit, which my hon. Friend the Member for Windsor (Adam Afriyie) mentioned. There are pensioners who are eligible for council tax benefit but who will not get it; they will not be able to access the upratings under this order, because they are not claiming the benefit. Will the Minister comment not only on the astonishingly low take-up of council tax benefit for pensioners, but on the fact that the rate of take-up is apparently declining? Using the DWP’s tax benefit model tables, since 1997 average council tax has risen by 75 per cent., and over the same period there has been a decrease of about 11 per cent. in the take-up of council tax benefit for pensioners. Currently, only about 56 per cent. of pensioners are claiming this benefit to which they are entitled. In 2003-04, 41 per cent. of pensioners entitled to council tax benefit but not claiming it were below the Government’s own poverty line. According to the previously mentioned NAO report ““Progress in Tackling Pensioner Poverty””, if the council tax benefit take-up rate were improved to about 95 per cent., 160,000 pensioners would be lifted out of poverty, according to the Government’s own poverty measure. Those are significant statistics; they show that if there were better take-up of the last two benefits mentioned—pension credit and council tax benefit—we would get more pensioners out of poverty more quickly than is currently projected. For owner-occupiers, many of whom are pensioners, the council tax benefit take-up is in the range of 36 to 41 per cent. That proportion has fallen, and the poor level of take-up damages the prospects of pensioners on low incomes. Will the Minister tell us what steps he is taking, and will take, to improve take-up? That is not a party political point; I know that he has been working on this, and that outside groups want him to work on it, and the Opposition have a duty to ask about it. We look forward to hearing his comments. The story that the statistics tell is ultimately one of a benefit system that is too complex and too bureaucratic. So that the Minister understands that I am being balanced, I repeat that I do not believe for one second that benefit complexity was invented by Ministers some time after 1997. What I am suggesting is that there has been a problem for a long time, and that during the last 10 years, although well-meaning attempts have been made to reduce benefit complexity and bureaucracy—I do not doubt the bona fides of Ministers in that regard—the problem persists. The answers given to the questions that many Members, particularly myself, have tabled on underpayment and overpayment in relation to a raft of benefits—not only pension credit, income support and jobseeker’s allowance, which are the big-ticket benefits—reveal that there is still a very high level of inaccuracy, whether in terms of customer error, customer fraud or official error. This is not a ““policy wonk”” debate; it is important for a much better reason. Support is not getting to those who need it most: those at the bottom end of the income scale. Of course, that is ultimately what this motion is about—delivering more support and help to those who need it. The NAO report to which I referred earlier underlines the fact that complexity is part of the problem in delivering support to those who need it. It states:"““Many pensioners and those that advise them””—" let us not forget the lobby groups and support groups that advise pensioners—"““consider the systems and administrative procedures for claiming benefits to be too complex. In all there are 23 potential entitlements for pensioners, with 36 linkages between 16 of them.””" The 17th report of the Social Security Advisory Committee, published in 2004, says that"““complexity characterises the entire benefits system…the size, complexity and dispersion of the benefits system, and the blurring of the boundaries over what should constitute its proper role has led to a pervading sense of a loss of cohesion””." Bodies do not get much more independent than the Social Security Advisory Committee. Help the Aged tells us the following in its campaign on benefit complexity:"““The (benefits for pensioners) system is so muddled and poorly advertised that even Pension Credit, a widely advertised benefit aimed at some of the poorest older people, is only claimed by just over half of those entitled to it.””"