Pensioners have been urged to ensure they claim the benefits that they are entitled to.

Ahead of the new increases in social security benefits which come into force on April 7, Age Concern asked the ePolitix.com Forum whether government targets for take up are enough to ensure a substantial reduction in pensioner poverty.

Forum Response: Age Concern England

Age Concern's director-general, Gordon Lishman, told ePolitix.com: "It is clear that money benefits still aren't getting to the poorest older people. The government must set more ambitious targets for the take-up of Pension Credit otherwise money will continue to lie unclaimed.

"The government's target of reaching three million pensioner households by 2006 is not enough and will leave another million pensioner households out-of-pocket. We want to see targets that increase significantly year-on-year with at least 80 per cent take-up by October 2005."

Forum Response: National Consumer Council

Gill Bull, acting chief executive of the National Consumer Council, told ePolitix.com: "There are lots of barriers facing pensioners in claiming benefits they're entitled to. These include lack of awareness, perceived stigma associated with 'handouts', reluctance to provide personal information and the complexity of the system.

"As a result, between one-quarter and one-third of pensioners entitled to claim the minimum income guarantee state pension top-up fail to do so.

"So, when the more complex pension credit top-up arrives in October - to which even more pensioners will become entitled - there's a risk that without energetic efforts to overcome the many barriers to benefit take-up, the situation could get worse not better.

"That's why Age Concern's initiative to raise benefit take-up among pensioners is welcome. Better still, if means-tested pension top-ups were phased out instead of expanded, and replaced with a more generous basic state pension, the need to tackle pensioner poverty with initiatives to raise benefit take-up would no longer be necessary."

Forum Response: Help the Aged

Mervyn Kohler, head of public affairs at Help the Aged, told ePolitix.com: "The range and complexity of means-tested benefits for pensioners continues to grow, but take-up remains poor and government targets remain unambitious.

"Figures on benefit take-up, issued on March 27 by the Department for Work and Pensions, show that between £470 million and £820 million which was available to pensioners through the government's flagship policy, the Minimum Income Guarantee, went unclaimed in 2000/01. Despite information campaigns, nearly 30 per cent of pensioners missed out on MIG worth an average of £22 per week.

"Comparing 1999/2000 and 2000/01, there has been a marginal rise in pensioners taking up MIG and a marginal fall in those taking up Council Tax Benefit. Thirty five per cent of pensioners missed out on CTB worth an average of £8 per week.

"The fact is that means testing is a rotten way of targeting the poorest pensioners. Of course, organisations like Help the Aged and Age Concern will put a lot of effort into encouraging to claim their entitlements, but it is an effort that should not be necessary.

"Responses to the recent green paper on pensions show an overwhelming consensus from a very diverse cross section of organisations that the state pension should be set at a meaningful level, in order that means testing should not normally be an issue."