One million pensioner households are missing out on extra support worth £1,800 a year. Eight in 10 pensioner homeowners are failing to claim state benefits worth an average of £1,807 per year, a new report has claimed.
79 per cent of pensioner homeowners are missing out on benefits they could claim. Stephen Lowe, group communications director at Just Group, said: “Despite the focus on benefits as a result of the Government’s decision to axe Winter Fuel Payments to millions, our survey once again shows the scandalous scale of the underclaiming problem.”
Just Group’s twelfth annual State Benefits insight report found that of pensioner homeowners entitled to receive benefits, nearly half (49%) were failing to claim with each household missing out on an average of £1,197 a year extra income. Two in 10 (21%) who were claiming were receiving too little, on average missing out on £1,220 a year income.
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Mr Lowe added: “Our take-up figures for homeowners are a little lower than the overall rates published by the Government, suggesting some people may think owning a home rules them out of receiving State support.”
The highest amount of extra income lost was £9,090 a year to a couple in Kent who were receiving some disability and mobility benefits but whom the advisers discovered should also be claiming Guarantee Pension Credit, Savings Pension Credit and Council Tax Reduction.
In total, about one-third of those missing income (30%) were entitled to benefits worth at least £1,000 a year. “The first step carried out by specialist equity release advisers from our sister company HUB Financial Solutions is to check if clients are eligible for more income from the State,” said Mr Lowe.
“Claiming their full entitlement can give them extra income that will often reduce the amount they need to release or remove the need to release any funds altogether at that time.”