“Jumping through hoops”: Older people’s experiences of claiming social security entitlements

In this long-read, Independent Age’s Senior Policy Officer Tatiana Sherwood explores what it’s like to claim financial support past State Pension age, and the devastating impact if people are not able to do this.

“Long, tedious, repetitive, by [the] time you finished you feel absolutely awful, mentally exhausted and worry you won’t get the help.”

This is how one person described the process of applying for a social security entitlement. Aged between 71 and 75, they were responding to a 2024 Independent Age survey. As a charity that speaks to older people in poverty every day, and helps many to navigate the social security system, we know that this experience is far from unique. Many people in later life rely on social security and the State Pension to get by, but too many are missing out.

Previously, we have conducted extensive research on Pension Credit, an income top-up for people past State Pension age; highlighting how much Pension Credit is not received by eligible people across the UK, and what the UK Government and local authorities can do to rectify this.

But Pension Credit is just one element of a wider — and extremely complex — system of financial support designed for those in later life, and it is important to understand where people are missing out across this whole pathway.

Why does take-up matter?

Take-up of benefits — which means the proportion of people eligible who actually receive them — has been a problem in the UK and abroad for many years. It has even been highlighted as an urgent issue by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

Low take-up matters because of the enormous positive impact on people’s finances and wellbeing that often follow when people do receive social security payments. According to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the average annual Pension Credit payment is almost £4,000.

But the total gain is often much higher than this, as Pension Credit acts as a passport to many other forms of financial support. People may be eligible for a reduction of up to 100% on their rent and council tax, as well as a free TV licence for the over 75s, the Warm Home Discount, and help with NHS costs. The total of these passported forms of support can be as much as £8,000 a year, and that’s not including the income directly from Pension Credit, or from any disability benefits a person may be entitled to.

‘Entitled to’ is a key phrase. These are life-changing sums of money which people are owed and need, yet so many of those in desperate situations are missing out. We know that there are two million too many older people living in poverty in the UK, making devastating decisions between heating and eating, often to the detriment of their physical and mental health. Receiving their entitlements, particularly if they are eligible for several, would lift many people out of poverty, as highlighted in research commissioned by Independent Age from Loughborough University.

The take-up of Pension Credit is in the spotlight following the Chancellor’s announcement in July 2024 that in future the Winter Fuel Payment will also only be received by those getting Pension Credit. This will add more value to the passported benefits described above. At Independent Age we are hugely concerned about the fact that everyone eligible but not receiving Pension Credit will now lose this important source of income — Winter Fuel Payment can be worth up to £300 a year.

Pensioner benefit take-up: the facts

The most recent data from DWP, for 2021–22, puts take-up of Pension Credit at 63%, with minimal change over the last decade. This equates to as many as 880,000 households — potentially up to 1.2m people — missing out on up to £2.1 billion of Pension Credit. This means there are an average of almost 1,400 older households missing out on support they are eligible for in every constituency in England, Scotland, and Wales (Pension Credit is administered separately in Northern Ireland). Independent Age estimate that in around 50 constituencies, more than 2,000 are missing out. In money terms, we estimate that each constituency is missing out on an average of £3.3m, with as much as £10 million going unreceived in some constituencies.

While official take-up statistics are not released for other benefits (apart from Housing Benefit, which is at 79% for pensioners), Policy in Practice have produced estimates for how many people could be missing out on the money they are entitled to in 2024, as shown by the table below. Across the four main social security entitlements received by pensioners, as much as £9.6 billion could be going unreceived in Great Britain. Even if this figure is a slight overestimate (it is quite difficult to calculate for Attendance Allowance), this is still an enormous amount of untapped critical financial support.

Why don’t people receive their entitlements?

Often, it is assumed the primary reason for low take-up is that older people are not aware of the existence of relevant support. While this is certainly the case for some people — and should continue to be tackled by targeted awareness raising campaigns — focusing solely on awareness fails to tell the whole story. Indeed, a YouGov survey commissioned by Independent Age in December 2023 found that respondents (aged 50+) had fairly high awareness of what financial support exists, with 85% saying they had heard of Pension Credit.

There are several barriers that mean those who are eligible for entitlements and aware of them might not receive them. These barriers include perceptions of shame and experiencing stigma, with survey respondents telling us they felt like “a beggar”, or “a failure” when they applied for support.

Many people also incorrectly believe themselves to be ineligible, thinking things like benefits are “not for people like me”, or “the Government would have told me if I was eligible”.

Similarly, many think that if they receive one benefit (such as Pension Credit), they will automatically receive, or at least be told about, any other financial entitlements they are now eligible for. In reality, almost every form of support requires a separate application, which many people are simply not aware of.

“Death by paper”

Another important, and sometimes overlooked reason, is that the sheer complexity of the social security system may put people off applying, or mean they give up during the process, unless they have expert assistance. This is reflected in research by Age UK, which found that the second and third most common reasons participants had not claimed previously were “I didn’t know how to go about claiming” and “I didn’t have anyone to help”.

Many people need help to understand the range of support they may be eligible for, and the interlinking between these. There are a multitude of entitlements and schemes run by the DWP, local authorities, the NHS, and utility companies. How many benefits and social tariffs someone is eligible for will depend on their personal circumstances, including finances, age, health, housing tenure, and any caring responsibilities.

While it’s important to have a system that covers a wide range of needs, the size and complexity of the system can be very daunting. There are so many interlinked benefits, all with their own criteria and application processes, and the order in which you apply for them will affect your eligibility and the amount you might get. The DWP website tries to set this all out clearly, but with so much information, we know from our conversations with older people that it can be hard for people to know what to apply for, how to do so, and when.

Applying for any one of these forms of support is hugely time consuming — and this is multiplied for those who are eligible for several. As one Independent Age advice worker shared:

Advice specialists can play an invaluable role in helping people navigate through this web, running eligibility checks, explaining processes, and even filling in forms on a caller’s behalf. Through our interviews with Independent Age Helpline colleagues and benefits advisers, and others across the sector, we are collating insight into the issues frequently faced by their callers. We will present the findings of this ongoing research in our full report, which is expected within the next six months.

It is interesting to note some of the initial themes coming out, such as:

• Significant barriers for those with limited digital access.
• Insufficient resources for DWP and local authority benefit teams. This leads to long waits on phone lines, and for applications to be processed.
• Lack of clarity, consistency and efficiency around the application process for those eligible for both Housing Benefit and Pension Credit.
• Callers regularly being confused about the difference between Attendance Allowance and Carer’s Allowance, as well as confusion about Underlying Entitlement to Carer’s Allowance in general.
• Confusion and missed opportunities for people transitioning between working age and pension age benefits.

But the overarching message is that advisers regularly help people access financial entitlements that they simply wouldn’t receive without this expert support. This was succinctly put by one survey respondent who receives Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction:

“I would not have got it if I hadn’t been to Citizens Advice.”

This idea was reiterated by many survey respondents, with Age UK and Independent Age also mentioned as vital sources of help. Charities are helping to fill a vital gap, and will continue to be there for those who need them. But charities will never be able to reach all individuals who need us, so it’s important for the system to be as straightforward as possible. This would empower more people to access their entitlements without needing additional support.

What does a complex social security system mean in practice for older people in poverty?

To further bring to life what the social security system is like for older people facing financial hardship, it’s important to consider someone’s full journey of applying for multiple forms of financial support, rather than looking at experiences of applying only for Pension Credit or Carer’s Allowance, for instance. Below is an example of one such journey, following ‘Lilian’. While Lilian is not a real person, the journey she takes is common, and her story reflects the experiences of many of the people who Independent Age’s advisers help.

Lilian

Lilian is a 78-year-old private renter who lives alone. Her State Pension and small private pension give her a combined income of £250 a week, and she has very little in savings. This means she is not eligible for Pension Credit (which has a standard minimum guarantee of £218.15 a week). However, she still finds it very difficult to make ends meet, and calls Independent Age to see if she can access any financial support.

During the call, the adviser learns that Lilian lives with a visual impairment, making many daily tasks difficult. So they help Lilian to fill out the form for Attendance Allowance, which is for pensioners living with disabilities and long-term health conditions.

The adviser also encourages her to apply for Pension Credit in the next ten days, even though they know Lilian is not yet eligible for this and will be rejected. Once Lilian is awarded Attendance Allowance by the DWP, she is now eligible for Pension Credit, because the Severe Disability Addition means the income threshold for Pension Credit rises to nearly £300 a week.

Lilian successfully reapplies for Pension Credit and has her entitlement of almost £50 a week backdated to the time of her first Pension Credit claim. If she had waited to apply for Pension Credit until she started receiving Attendance Allowance, she would have missed out on several months’ worth of payment.

After receiving Pension Credit, Lilian successfully applies for a full reduction on both her rent (via Housing Benefit) and her Council Tax (via Council Tax Reduction), and also applies for a free TV licence. At this point, Lilian could be considerably more than £10,000 a year better off, a life-changing sum. The adviser then encourages her to contact her broadband, water, and energy providers, as she may also be eligible for money off her bills via social tariffs or other discounts.

It is clearly positive that people like Lilian who follow this pathway are significantly better off financially than before. Even a much smaller amount of financial entitlement can make an enormous difference to the life of someone living in poverty. But to access this critical income, someone could have to fill out about 8 different and repetitive forms, some of which are up to 30 or 40 pages long.

Our advisers say that the Attendance Allowance form is particularly complex, with very unclear questions, and limited guidance provided, as noted in our response to a 2022 Work and Pensions Committee inquiry on disability benefits. Advisers also note that it takes them at least two hours to help somebody fill it in. It is likely that this would be much longer for somebody trying to apply without support, especially if they had health needs. As one colleague said:

“The length of an Attendance Allowance form is off-putting, for sure. We’ll often speak to people who physically struggle to write that much. If you’ve got arthritis, filling out a long form is difficult.”

Many survey respondents also reported challenges applying for Attendance Allowance, including one octogenarian who wrote:

“I have a degree and am fairly intelligent. The Attendance Allowance is a 50 page form which I needed help with. No wonder the Attendance Allowance is under applied for!”

Even if someone manages to complete the Attendance Allowance form, this is only the first step in the process. Given the waits for each claim to be assessed, the whole pathway outlined above could take 6 to 9 months.

Moreover, the requirement for some Attendance Allowance recipients like Lilian to apply for Pension Credit twice in order to receive their full backdated entitlement is a needless step. This can confuse people and add administrative burden for DWP staff. If this contorted process and long form puts someone off applying for Attendance Allowance, then they could miss out on a whole host of other support, which is deeply concerning.

What needs to change?

Over the coming months, Independent Age will continue to engage with a wide range of stakeholders to further understand the issues raised in this long-read and develop policy recommendations. Topics of interest will likely include:

• Reviewing the customer journeys and links between benefits for people in later life, identifying ways to improve how people eligible for multiple forms of support receive information and are guided through different parts of the system, including whether any steps can be (partially) automated;
• How to facilitate greater data sharing between and within UK government departments, local authorities, and other organisations to better target information at people and to make the application process easier;
• Understanding where clearer communication of eligibility rules and application processes is needed;
• What training and resources for DWP and local authority benefit teams might help improve customer experience and avoid repeating the serious application backlogs seen in recent years.

One way to develop and implement progress would be through a UK Government benefits take-up strategy, similar to the one that already exists in Scotland. A strategy should include target take-up levels, tangible actions to achieve these, and plans for measurement and accountability.

As well as working towards a comprehensive strategy, there are several steps the new UK Government can take in the immediate term, including:

• Publicly commit to increasing take-up of all entitlements for pensioners, and produce a plan to develop policy and practice through a review and/or working group.
• Run a Pension Credit awareness campaign as soon as possible in Autumn 2024, in light of the fact that the Winter Fuel Payment will be tied to receipt of Pension Credit by this winter. This activity cannot be ‘business as usual’ — there is more urgency than ever for an innovative and impactful campaign that targets areas and groups more likely to be eligible. It should build on the learnings from previous campaigns and those run by others, such as the Greater London Authority. The Pension Service will need enough resource to cope with a rise in applications, to prevent long call times and slow decisions.
• Publish the evaluation of the ‘Invitation to Claim’ trial which targeted Pension Credit information at Housing Benefit recipients, so learnings from this can inform the strategy and Autumn 2024 campaign.
• Make the process simpler for those who become eligible for Pension Credit only once they receive another entitlement such as Carer’s Allowance or Attendance Allowance. The current rules around backdating in this process are complicated, meaning that many people could unknowingly be missing out on several months’ worth of much needed payments or must make multiple Pension Credit applications.
• Make improvements in the information given to people approaching State Pension age in the working-age benefits system. This is a good opportunity to clearly flag the range of support people may shortly become eligible for.

Support our work

The process to claim financial entitlements has been described by more than one older person as like “jumping through hoops”. But at every hoop, there will be people who fail to ‘jump through’, confused by the rules, overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork, or lacking support to apply. There is a real risk that these people continue to live in poverty, missing out on money they are entitled to.

At Independent Age, we want to work with older people, the advice sector, local authorities and policymakers to better understand and improve this system. Please do reach out if you can support us or want to speak to us.

If you share Independent Age’s concerns around the changes to Winter Fuel Payment, you can sign our open letter here, or email your MP here.

If you’d like to know more about our policy or research, you can contact policy@independentage.org

If you’d like to help us make change, you can join our campaign network.

If you are past State Pension age and struggling to make ends meet, we have free information and advice which you can access online or by calling our free Helpline on 0800 319 6789.