One of the big worries about older people's use of social security benefits is the concern that they do not take up the benefits they are entitled to. Information about lack of take-up comes from a regular government survey.
The government is consulting about stopping publication of their regular reports on the take-up of benefits. This is because they want to have more research done on things they think are important, because they've cut their statistics staff, so they want to reduce their workload and because the sample size of the study is being reduced so the reports will be less accurate. They're also less accurate than we would all like, anyway.
My view is that there can be no higher priority than making sure older people (and others) get the pensions and benefits they are entitled to - people in older agegroups who get benefits are often seriously afflicted by poverty. What they should do is increase the sample size and look for other ways of making the reports more accurate, not get rid of them. You can't help feeling that they want to do away with an important indicator of how well they're doing their job. But as I've said before, the main purpose of the DWP under the current administration is saving money on social security, so it's no surprise. I'm starting to call them the Department of Wilting Protection.
Link to the consultation document
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