The take-up of Income Support by pensioners: estimates from POLIMOD using the Family Resources Survey

The non take-up of means-tested benefits by pensioners has been of concern in the UK for some time. It will become all the more important to measure and to understand with the introduction of the means-tested Pension Credit in October 2003, to which about half of all pensioners are expected to be entitled. This note provides estimates of take-up of Income Support (IS) by pensioners using the 1999/2000 Family Resources Survey (FRS).2 Information on amounts of benefit received is taken directly from the survey and estimates of entitlement are calculated using the tax-benefit model POLIMOD (Redmond et al., 1998). A particular focus is on the differences in rates of entitlement and rates of take-up by pensioners in different circumstances. Are younger pensioners less likely to be entitled? Are older pensioners more likely to take-up their entitlements? If pensioners live in households with non-pensioner adults are they more or less likely to take up IS?