
On average, households that need help are losing £1,800 extra per year in unclaimed financial support, including Pension Credit and Universal Credit, according to Just Group’s annual survey.
One in 10 (9%) received too little, and those who did make a claim did not receive the full £2,195 they would be entitled to.
Meanwhile, over half (58%) of low-income pensioners earning less than £218.15 per week (£332.95 for a couple) who didn’t claim any benefits were out of pocket by an average of £1,000 per year.
This means many also didn’t get paid the Winter Fuel Payment in November and December, which became means-tested last year following a change by the Government in the Autumn Budget. The deadline to apply for Pension Credit to receive the help with energy bills was on 21 December 2024.
To qualify for the £200 payment (£300 for those over 80), you need to receive Pension Credit, Universal Credit, Income Support, income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), Child Tax Credit or Working Tax Credit.

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The only circumstance under which you can still claim the cash boost is if you live abroad, and the deadline to apply is 31 March 2025.
For those above the state pension age, you can claim backdated Pension Credit payments for up to three months. You can check your eligibility here.
More benefits to Pension Credit
Claiming Pension Credit doesn’t just unlock automatic Winter Fuel Payments either, as other benefits such as a council tax discount, help with NHS, opticians, dental treatment and transport are available too.
Despite the high percentage of pensioners going without financial support, there was a surge in the take-up of Pension Credit after the Winter Fuel Payment announcement was made.
Since July, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) received a spike in claims of 145%, resulting in 150,000 extra claims being made from July up until December last year.
However, despite this surge in uptake, 64% of those eligible for benefits were still not claiming one out of the Guarantee Pension Credit, Savings Credit, council tax reductions or Universal Credit they were eligible for.
For Guarantee Pension Credit, one-half of Pension Credit, alongside Savings Pensions Credit, just one in 10 eligible pensioner homeowners claimed what they could, losing an average of £1,391 in income.
For Savings Pension Credit, this was a loss of £933 per year, while Universal Credit losses were an average of £1,067.
Just 50% of households who could claim Universal Credit did so in 2024 and lost an average benefit of £2,626 per year.
Stephen Lowe, group communications director at Just Group, believed this suggests “some people may think owning a home rules them out of receiving state support”.
Of the respondents, over a tenth (12%) were missing out on two benefits, with the same number of people missing out on three benefits. Only 12% of the pensioner homeowners surveyed by Just Group were claiming every benefit they are entitled to.
One example saw a couple in their mid-70s who went without £147.37 per week that they could have claimed. They were both eligible for £95.26 in Guarantee Pension Credit, £19.04 in Savings Pension Credit and £31.07 in council tax reductions.
‘Proportion of under-claiming remains very high’
Lowe said: “Despite the focus on benefits as a result of the Government’s decision to axe Winter Fuel Payments to millions, our survey once again shows the scandalous scale of the under-claiming problem.
“Of the one-third of pensioner homeowners eligible for benefits, the proportion failing to claim remains very high, while the amounts unclaimed are larger than for more than a decade. This is real cash that should be helping low-income pensioners deal with the cost-of-living crisis.”
Lowe added: “Figures for Pension Credit – the main means-tested benefit for older people – are particularly worrying because it is a gateway to other benefits such as Winter Fuel Payment. Only about one in 10 pensioner homeowners are eligible, but we found 90% of them were missing out.”