Nottingham City Council is encouraging citizens to check if they are eligible to be claiming pension credit.
It is estimated that over £11.5 million in pension credit is going unclaimed in Nottingham City. Pension credit can not only top up income but acts as a passport to unlocking other benefits including housing benefit and council tax support as well as eligibility for winter fuel payments, free NHS dental treatment, hospital transport and lower water bills. Unclaimed pension credit puts eligible older adults in Nottingham at risk of experiencing financial difficulty and falling into poverty.
Increasingly, groups of people who have never accessed benefits or advice in the past are seeking financial support, with lower income households particularly impacted by high inflation of energy and food costs. Being unable to afford to eat healthily, not having access to cooking facilities, living in unsafe homes, or struggling to heat the home can all contribute to poor health.
Advice services play a pivotal role in improving health outcomes and mental wellbeing by providing free and impartial advice on a range of issues, including benefits, debt, employment and housing. Nottingham City Council is allocating £1.2 million from the ringfenced public health grant over the next 3 years to enable advice services to continue to provide timely, targeted and effective information, advice and assistance to citizens experiencing or at risk of financial difficulty.
Cllr Jay Hayes, Executive Member for Housing and Planning at Nottingham City Council said: “We’re concerned that there are older people struggling financially who may not know that they could be eligible for pension credit so we want to do all we can to promote the support available.
“The Council recently approved £1.2m in funding for Advice Nottingham over the next three years to provide advice and support services to local people so we’d urge older people to get in touch with them or other advice services such as Age UK to check if they may entitled to claim pension credit which could help alleviate some of the worries they may have about paying their bills.”
Find out about claiming pension credit at: Claiming Pension Credit | Ask Lion – Nottingham City Directory
For more information about money help and advice available in Nottingham, visit: Money | Ask Lion – Nottingham City Directory
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