Apply for Pension Credit and Housing Benefit amber review
DWP's Apply for Pension Credit and Housing Benefit alpha amber review
Apply for Pension Credit and Housing Benefit
| Assessment date | 19/06/2026 |
| Assessment stage | Alpha |
| Assessment type | Amber Review |
| Service provider | Department for Work and Pensions |
| Result | Green |
Service description
Pension age citizens currently face complex, fragmented journeys when attempting to claim Pension Credit (PC) and Housing Benefit (HB). The benefits are currently administered separately, Pension Credit by DWP and Housing Benefit by Local Authorities. Each uses different systems, application forms, and workflows. In total to claim both benefits, citizens may engage with up to 16 different people or processes across DWP and their Local Authority.
When the financial support is needed, citizens must find information and apply for each benefit separately. Analysis shows that 27% of questions asked in both applications have an obvious overlap. This results in poor experiences and unnecessary effort for citizens, leading to low uptake of the benefits.
Operationally, the system is equally fragmented. Each Local Authority uses its own processing system and own version of the Housing Benefit application form with limited standardisation, meaning data-sharing with the department is inadequate. This causes the same citizen information to be processed independently, creating delays and double handling.
The impact of this fragmentation is significant, with many pension age citizens missing out on vital financial support: up to 100,000 pensioners enter relative poverty each year.
The proposal is a joined-up service that enables pension age citizens to apply for Pension Credit and Housing Benefit together, through a simplified, consistent and standardised experience.
The goal is to ensure users only need to tell us information for both benefits once, regardless of which organisation processes the claim and the channel they use. For now, the service is being developed within existing policy, legal, operational and technical constraints that shape the scope of what can be delivered initially and the future roadmap.
Bringing together the administration of Pensioner Housing Benefit and Pension Credit – GOV.UK
Service users
- primary users – pension age or approaching pension age citizens
- secondary users – includes Housing Benefit and Pension Credit benefit agents, third party organisations, and charities supporting our pension age citizens submitting their claims, housing associations and other social housing landlords
- tertiary users – private landlords, front-facing agents in Local Authorities or DWP, Universal Credit work coaches who might interact with our service to signpost citizens or support with their claims and evidence gathering
12. Make new source code open
Decision
The service was rated green for point 12 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- List Bullet 1
Next Steps
[Green - alpha]
This service can now move into a private beta phase, subject to getting approval from the GDS spend control team. The service must meet the standard at beta assessment before launching public beta.
To get the service ready to launch on GOV.UK the team needs to:
- get a GOV.UK service domain name
- work with the GOV.UK content team on any changes required to GOV.UK content