LONDON (Brand Republic) - A £9m government advertising campaign to raise awareness of the minimum income guarantee for pensioners has been criticised as an “expensive flop”.
Figures released yesterday revealed that only 10% of claims for the scheme, which supplements pensioners’ income by up to £20 extra a week, were successful.
The minimum income campaign was launched last year with TV ads featuring Dame Thora Hird and other celebrities. The government sent 2.4m letters to pensioners informing them of the benefit and set up a telephone claims centre.
Of the pensioners targeted, 840,000 made enquiries and 182,000 sent in applications, but only 82,000 had their claims accepted.
Charities such as Age Concern claimed the 40-page application forms were too complicated and said that people are often deterred by means testing. The shadow social security secretary David Willetts accused the government’s tax credit scheme of being complicated and “fundamentally flawed”.