Pensioners miss out on cash

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 25th Nov 2004

Nearly 15,000 pensioners in Bradford District are missing out on cash which they are entitled to according to Cllr David Ward.

Figures provided by the Government show that while 5 million pensioners across the country are entitled to pension credit only just over 3 million are claiming it.

In Bradford that means that of the 41,000 who are eligible, it is likely that less than 25,000 are actually getting it.

Cllr Ward said,

" The pension credit is horrendously difficult to understand. People are put off by means testing and the result is that too few actually get what they are entitled to. Nationally, more pensioners die each month than sign up for the Pension Credit.

It's a scandal that so may people are missing out. This is highlighted by Help the Aged and British Gas who are running a campaign highlighting fuel poverty amongst older people showing a coffin disappearing behind the curtain at a crematorium with the caption ' Warm at Last '.

Some of those 15,000 pensioners in Bradford who are not receiving the income they are entitled to, could be this year's winter death statistics.

Pension credit should be made much simpler to understand and easier to claim but in the long run the only real solution is to give retired people an adequate income in old age .

I am writing to Bradford District Community Legal Advice Partnership to ask what help they are able to provide to people to get the Pension Credit.