Written question WQ86968

The Welsh Government is doing all it can to put money into the pockets of people in Wales by encouraging them to claim every pound they are entitled to. Increasing awareness and take-up of both non-devolved and devolved benefits has always been a strong focus of our government and we are delivering excellent results with our welfare benefit take-up projects. This includes encouraging older people to claim benefits such as Pension Credit.

We have already delivered two national Claim What’s Yours benefit take-up campaigns delivering messages across TV, radio, print & social media channels to raise people’s awareness of their financial entitlements. Over 9,000 people have responded to the campaign’s call to action to contact Advicelink Cymru and been helped to claim over £2.7m of additional income.

Building on the success of these campaigns we have just launched a Here to Help Campaign in response to the cost-of-living crisis comprising of targeted messaging for older people utilising leaflet drops, messaging on buses, pharmacy bags, supermarket trolleys as well as the usual media channels to ensure that older people do not miss out on crucial financial support. Again, an integral part of the campaign will be directing people to Advicelink Cymru for assistance.

Along with DWP and Older People’s Commissioner, we are actively encouraging people to make a claim for Pension Credit before December 18, 2022, which could mean that they also qualify for the UK Government cost of living payment worth £324.

Last week Ministers and officials took part in the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales Pension Credit Summit to encourage partners to work together to raise awareness and uptake of Pension Credit. Both the Minister for Social Justice and the Deputy Minister for Social Services demonstrated their commitment to ensuring people in Wales are not missing out by making a promise highlighting the action the Welsh Government is taking to increase awareness of Pension Credit in Wales.

Welsh Government officials have a well- established Pension Credit Task and Finish Group consisting of WG and DWP officials, and other stakeholders, including Age Cymru and the Older People’s Commissioners Office. Earlier this year this group worked closely with the DWP on their UK Wide Pension Credit campaign to maximise impact in Wales. An ongoing piece of work for this group is to determine how we can directly target households using existing data and a meeting with Local Authority representatives will be held early in 2023 to explore this further.