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Caring for the Elderly

Of course, and we continue to try to drive up the percentage of people claiming. In the Welfare Reform Bill, we are taking powers to share information, so that we can try to make claims more automatic, and we now have a partnership agreement with all 209 primary local authorities to share housing and council tax benefit claims as well as pension credit claims. I am optimistic that we can continue to make good progress, but I am not going to say that I am completely satisfied with take-up. We still have to do more, and we are. Pension credit can open the door to many other benefits, such as housing and council tax benefits. Jointly, they can lead to an equivalent income of about £200 a week, which is why we recently wrote to 230,000 people about their council tax benefit to encourage them to take up the benefits to which they are entitled. We make 13,000 home visits every week to conduct benefit checks, and that work is ongoing week in, week out.