Pensioners are missing out on crucial benefits including winter fuel payments under an arduous process that requires them to answer 450 questions, new research has found.
Many older people, particularly those with poor health or no internet access, are losing out on financial support due to ‘long and complex’ application forms that can take over four hours to complete, charity Independent Age has warned.
Elderly charity Independent Age is calling for the government to simplify the process for older people to access basic entitlements such as pension credit and housing benefit.
One pensioner, 69-year-old Susan, said she was reduced to tears by the process. ‘Not only were the questions difficult to understand, dwelling on all of the things that I am no longer capable of doing sent me into a very dark place,’ she told researchers.
Another described it as ‘long, tedious, repetitive’ and added: ‘By the time you finished you feel absolutely awful, mentally exhausted and worry you won’t get the help.’
The complexity is partly to blame for low take-up of benefits, with 970,000 elderly people missing out on pension credit and 270,000 eligible households missing out on housing benefit, the research found.
The research found that elderly people would have to answer a total of 450 questions if they are applying for the four main pensioner’s benefits: Attendance Allowance, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction and Pension Credit.
Pensioners now need to successfully apply for Pension Credit in order to receive winter fuel payments following Labour’s decision to means test the allowance, with this form alone stretching to 243-questions across 22 pages.
The charity said that the ‘overly complex’ process ‘could take up to four hours with the help of a trained adviser, and even longer if a person is attempting the process without support’.
The research found that certain groups can find the application process more difficult, including those with no internet access, people with health conditions and those with low literacy levels.
Many pensioners also feel a ‘sense of stigma and shame’ when asking for financial help and the difficult process makes them even less likely to seek benefits they are entitled to, the research adds.
The elderly charity said the ‘vague wording’ of some questions can make it hard to understand what information is needed while ‘the small boxes on the paper form don’t allow space to fully answer the questions and could imply limited information is required’.
With other questions many pensioners incorrectly assume that naming their health condition or providing their GP’s contact details is sufficient evidence, with the wording not making clear that detailed information about how an individual manages day to day is required in order to qualify.
In other questions pensioners are asked what ‘difficulty’ they have with certain tasks but this is not defined – and applications can be returned or turned down if they are not answered correctly.
The research adds: ‘Where people do recognise the difficulties they are facing – such as issues with personal hygiene or no longer being able to do the things they enjoy – they can be embarrassing and emotional to articulate.’
Joanna Elson, chief executive of Independent Age, said Britain’s social security system is ‘far too complex and difficult to navigate’ and ‘many people in later life are often unable to access potentially life-changing support as a result’.
She said that ‘something has to change’ and added: ‘The UK Government and local authorities must work together to drive take-up for benefits such as pension credit and housing benefit.’
A DWP spokesman said: ‘We have made the process of applying for benefits as accessible as possible – such as completing the Pension Credit claim form online now takes on average just 16 minutes while figures published last week show nearly 120,000 more pensioners are receiving it since July.
‘Our new initiative of joining up State Pension and Pension Credit is supporting more people onto the benefit as soon as they become eligible, and we have written to over 120,000 pensioner households in receipt of Housing Benefit about Pension Credit to better join up the offer and further improve uptake.’