Torsten Bell

Torsten Bell

Labour — Swansea West

Speaking in the House of Commons on 19 March 2025

Debate

Winter Fuel Payment

Contribution

I will make some progress, because otherwise we will be here for several days. I take this opportunity to thank each and every organisation that supported the pension credit take-up campaign, as well as the many friends, neighbours and family members who looked out for pensioners and helped them to claim. A few weeks ago, we released the first data on the impact that the campaign has had. We have seen 235,000 pension credit applications in the 30 weeks since July, which is an 81% increase on the comparable period in 2022-23. On the question about processing rates, with over 500 additional staff allocated directly for that, we have seen a similar rise in the number of claims processed. Most importantly, that has led to almost 50,000 extra awards compared with the same period last year.

More from Torsten Bell

Other recent Hansard contributions by the same speaker.

About Hansard

Hansard is the official verbatim record of proceedings in the UK Parliament. Every word spoken in the Commons and Lords is recorded and published — this page is a single contribution from that record.

For Torsten Bell's full parliamentary record including voting history, expenses and all other contributions, see the Torsten Bell report card.