Pensioner Poverty
Treasury
Written answers and statements, 9 June 2009
Mary Creagh (Wakefield, Labour)
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent assessment he has made of the effect on levels of pensioner poverty of the proposals made in the 2009 Budget.
Ian Pearson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Economic and Business), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Dudley South, Labour)
The Government have made significant progress in tackling pensioner poverty over the last decade lifting 900,000 pensioners out of relative poverty since 1998. The Government remain committed to tackling pensioner poverty and in April the guarantee element of pension credit increased by the largest amount since its introduction and above indexation. Budget 2009 took further action to help pensioner incomes. It announced an additional payment alongside this year's winter fuel payment and a package of measures to support pensioners who receive an income from savings.