NI pensioners missing out on millions

Millions of pounds worth of benefits are lying unclaimed by Northern Ireland's pensioners, a new report has revealed.

The report, 'Encouraging the Take Up of Benefits by Pensioners' by John Dowdall CB, the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland, revealed that up to 36,000 potentially eligible pensioners had failed to apply for the Minimum Income Guarantee.

This equates to around one third of all pensioners considered to be living in low-income households.

Today's report to Parliament pointed out that the elderly may miss out on their full entitlement to social security benefits due to a number of inter-linking factors, including the complexity of the system, lack of knowledge of entitlement, a perception of being stigmatised by the receipt of benefit and physical or other difficulties in the processes of claiming.

As a result the Northern Ireland Audit Office had examined what could be done to overcome these barriers. Action already taken by the Social Security Agency includes the rolling out of a new Pensions Service to provide a regional service delivered through Pension Centres in Belfast and Londonderry, the redesign of the form for Minimum Income Guarantee to make it easier to claim, the appointment of Pension Advisors in local offices to provide a face-to-face service and to liaise with voluntary organisations representing the elderly and a local dedicated telephone claim line (the Minimum Income Guarantee Claimline - freephone 0800 028 11 11).

Commenting on the report, Northern Ireland Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee, Billy Bell described the situation as "intolerable in the 21st century" and an issue which needed to he resolved in the "immediate future" if thousands of pensioners were to be able to live above the poverty line.

However, Mr Bell said he welcomed many of the initiatives detailed in the report which, he said, were attempting to solve the problem through the development of informal channels of communication, the publicity campaign in the media, and the appointment of Departmental Pension Advisors.

(MB)