Credit where it's due as MP seeks pensions rethink

Published on Saturday 3 February 2007 11:28

AN Edinburgh MP is calling for a shake-up of Gordon Brown's flagship pensions credit system.

New figures have revealed that four out of ten hard-up elderly people in the Capital are still not claiming the benefit they are entitled to.

Liberal Democrat MP John Barrett has now written to Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton calling for action to simplify the system and make it more effective.

Fewer than 60 per cent of eligible households in Edinburgh are receiving pension credit, according to statistics uncovered by the Edinburgh West MP.

He said only around 17,000 of the 30,000 eligible pensioners are actually receiving the benefit.

Mr Barrett said: "It is simply unacceptable that over 12,000 pensioners in the Capital are still not getting the financial help they deserve. The Government have had over three years to get the message across to pensioners about the pension credit and yet the take-up rate across Edinburgh is still shockingly low.

"Part of the problem is the eye-watering complexity that is at the heart of the benefits system. Not only is it a struggle to understand the complicated forms, but many pensioners are still refusing to suffer the indignity of means-testing and are instead simply going without the help they are entitled to."

Pension credit was introduced in October 2003 to replace the Minimum Income Guarantee.