DWP shares measures in place to help prevent older people living in poverty during later life

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has shared key financial measures that the UK Government has in place to help prevent older people from living in poverty in later life, following a query from Labour MP, Rachael Maskell.

Pensions Minister, Alex Burghart, explained that the UK Government is “committed to action that helps to alleviate levels of pensioner poverty” and said more than £134 billion is forecast to be spent on benefits for people of State Pension age over 2022/23.

This amounts to 5.4% of GDP and includes spending on the State Pension which is forecast to be over £110bn in 2022/23.Mr Burghart also highlighted how the full yearly amount of the basic State Pension has risen by over £2,300 since 2010.

He also said: “The [UK] Government has committed to implementing the Triple Lock in the usual way for the remainder of the Parliament.”One of the biggest ways people over State Pension age can boost later life income is by claiming Pension Credit.The minister explained: “There are currently around 1.4m pensioners claiming some £5bn of Pension Credit which provides financial support to help with day-to-day living costs for people over State Pension age and on a low income and acts as passport to a range of additional support, including help with rent and Council Tax, as well as energy bills.”He also said that workplace pension automatic enrolment will help reduce the risk of poverty in retirement, saIn addition to these current measures, to reduce the risk of poverty for future pensioners, automatic enrolment into workplace pensions has transformed pension participation for millions of people.He said: “To date, over 10.7 million people have been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension, with over two