New rules that will require banks to provide data to the Government to help identify where someone may not eligible for benefits are “terrifying” pensioners and may mean they avoid applying for pension credit, a campaign group says.

The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill is currently passing through the Lords and mandates banks “to examine their own data sets” and “provide data to help identify where someone may not be meeting the specific eligibility criteria of a benefit”.

But the head of pensioner campaign group Silver Voices has called the Bill “draconian” and says it could end up reversing a recent uptake in pension credit – a benefit paid to people who are 66 or older and have low incomes. New Feature

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