Pensioners in Poverty - Pension Credit

This page includes a dashboard summary of pensioners in poverty (on Pension Credit) across Surrey geographies and the downloadable data. The dashboard was created by the Population Insight Team at Surrey County Council to provide a Surrey-level summary and the ability for you to select your desired area (District and Borough, Ward, or LSOA) for a more focused summary.

Pension Credit gives those of State Pension pension age extra money to help with their living costs if they're on a low income. Pension Credit can also help with housing costs such as ground rent or service charges. Persons may receive extra help if they're a carer, severely disabled, or responsible for a child or young person. Pension Credit is separate from State Pension. Recipients can get Pension Credit even if they have other income, savings or their own home.

This Tableau dashboard is also available on Tableau Public.

Highlights:

• As of May 2025, there were 14,615 Surrey residents (aged 65 and over) on Pension Credit. The number of people Pension Credit has also been used as a measure of 'pensioners in poverty'.

• An estimated one in every twenty Surrey residents aged 65 and over are on Pension Credit.

• The majority (89.6%) of residents on Pension Credit do not have a partner and so are facing the rising Cost of Living Crisis without a dual income/pension.

• There are 3,616 Surrey residents on Pension Credit aged 85 and over.

• Over two thirds (68.0%) of Surrey residents on Pension Credit are women, and this proportion increases in the older age categories (74.2% of those 90 and over are women).

Other related pages:

A summary of low income and unemployment in Surrey can be found on Surrey-i here.

A summary which focuses on child poverty and disadvantage in Surrey can be found on Surrey-I here.

A summary on fuel poverty in Surrey can be found on Surrey-i here.

Reference links:

• Information about pension credit

• This data was accessed from Stat-Xplore and was originally produced by the Department for Work and Pensions.