Millions eligible for complex credits

The government today launched a major advertising campaign to encourage retired people to claim the controversial new pension credit coming in on October 6.

The government estimates about half the 8 million pensioner households will be eligible for the credit, which aims to reward people who have made modest savings for their retirement, gaining an extra ?400 a year on average.

So far about 2.1 million households have registered to receive it: the government has set a target of having 3 million households claim it by 2006.

However, the benefit has already come under fierce criticism from pensioner welfare charities and other consumer bodies over its perceived complexity.

Help the Aged said it supported the new credit, but warned that it was "ferociously difficult to understand".

"Help the Aged believes that the pension credit is totally over-engineered - the Forth Bridge of welfare provision," said Mervyn Kohler, head of public affairs at Help the Aged.

"It would be so much simpler and fairer to boost basic state pension to the minimum income guarantee (MIG) level, which could still be done with modest extra costs, allowing the dismantling of the spider's web of pension credit with no losers."

The ?11m advertising campaign features pensioners at coffee mornings, allotments and in the street seeing money and being told to "pick it up, it's yours".

Launching the advert at a coffee morning for pensioners in Pimlico, London, today, secretary of state for work and pensions Andrew Smith said: "What we want to do is break down the stigma of benefits which has held some people back in the past. The message is that the pension credit is an entitlement, it's your money, claim it."

There are two elements to the pension credit; a minimum income guarantee and an additional payment that rewards people according to their savings.

A single pensioner with an income of about ?139 a week will get up to ?14 extra, while couples with ?203 a week will get an additional ?19. The new credit will cost the government about ?2.5bn.

To claim the Pension Credit, call 0800 991234, where an adviser will fill in the form over the telephone.