Report on the uptake of benefits by pensioners : together with the minutes of proceedings of the Committee relating to the report and the minutes of evidence, sixth report mandate 2011/15

Almost 20 per cent of Northern Ireland's 307,000 pensioners are classified as living in poverty and ensuring that they receive their full entitlement to benefits is morally right, but also represents an opportunity to inject a significant amount of additional funding into the local economy. The Department for Social Development (DSD) does not currently have an accurate estimate of the size of the benefit uptake gap but the last published figures suggested that unclaimed pensioner benefit was probably in the region of GBP100 million a year for pension credit and housing benefit alone. The report found that where DSD specifically targeted people, there was an increased uptake of benefit. But, although targeting is purportedly intelligence-led, the response and conversion rates remain too low and, in total, only 9 per cent were successful in obtaining additional benefits. The level of resources committed to outreach activities may not be sufficient to promote uptake by pensioners and the outreach work of the three benefit-paying agencies may not be sufficiently joined up, nor complement the activities of the voluntary and community sectors. Legislation permits the sharing of data for the purposes of identifying eligibility and improving uptake but to date such sharing has been piecemeal in nature and lacking in strategy. The proposed introduction of legislative powers to share the personal data held by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) carries huge potential. It is also important that the benefit-paying agencies rigorously appraise the potential implications of proposed welfare reform on uptake rates.