9 March 2006
HANSON HIGHLIGHTS BENEFIT UPTAKE GAINS
Social Development Minister David Hanson has welcomed the first estimates of benefit take-up in Northern Ireland.
Speaking after the publication today of the first statistical report 'Income Related Benefits - Estimates of Take-up in Northern Ireland 2002/04', the Minister said:
"I want to see people getting the support to which they are entitled. It is a concern to me that there seems to be many people who, for whatever reason, are not claiming the support to which they are entitled.
"It is a top priority for me to see this problem addressed. We are keenly aware of this situation and have been working with some success to improve benefit uptake in recent years." This report, the first in Northern Ireland, will help Government to better focus its ongoing work to encourage benefit take-up. However the figures are first estimates, collated two years ago, and must be treated with caution.
"For example, a campaign to promote Pension Credit which involved advertising and special support to help people claim has been very successful. Pensions Credit, introduced in October 2003, now goes to over 114,000 individuals in over 94,000 households. The government is committed to addressing this issue urgently.
"Further work is already under way to improve take-up of Housing Benefit and pilot studies have been carried out to see how we can assist older people to get their entitlements. The partnership with the Department for Employment and Learning is continuing with the introduction of Jobs & Benefits offices, which aims to deliver the Government's policy on welfare to work by providing a joined up benefit and job brokering service for job seekers which enables an increased number of benefit customers to access the labour market."
The Minister continued: "There is much more work to do in this area and we are still at an early stage in our understanding of why some people do not claim the benefits to which they might be entitled. Over time, the new statistics will help to inform our work."
"In the next couple of weeks I will be allocating more money to benefit take-up activities by the Social Security Agency for the coming year, based on what we have learned from pilot studies over the past twelve months."
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