MPs to probe councils’ role in lifting pensioners out of poverty

• Inquiry: Pensioner Poverty: challenges and mitigations
• Watch: Parliament Live
• Work and Pensions Committee

With housing costs set to become a heavier burden for new retirees as ownership rates decline, local councils’ responsibility over the distribution of housing benefit will come into ever sharper focus. The Committee will question the Chair of the Local Government Association, David Fothergill and National Housing Federation Director Alistair Smyth.

They will also hear from software analytics firm Policy in Practice. The firm has been helping many councils and local authorities identify potential Pension Credit claimants to drive take-up. Here, they are likely to ask about the impact of boosting Pension Credit take up, for example, whether doing so could lead to savings elsewhere, including in health and social care.

In the last session of the Committee’s inquiry into Pensioner Poverty in January, MPs heard that women were more likely to be at risk of poverty in retirement due to unpaid work and care commitments throughout their lifetimes. 

Witnesses

Panel from 09.30:

• Councillor David Fothergill, Chair of Community and Wellbeing Board, Local Government Association;
• Alistair Smyth, Director of Policy and Research, National Housing Federation;
• Deven Ghelani, Founder and Director, Policy in Practice; and
• Fabian Chessell, Central Government Lead, Policy in Practice.

Further information

• About Parliament: Select committees
• Visiting Parliament: Watch committees

Image: House of Commons