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Mass means-testing has failed pensioners, according to Pensions Minister Steve Webb.

New research from the Department for Work and Pensions revealed the method of using automatic payments to encourage poorer pensioners to claim Pension Credit has had little effect on the uptake.

There was only an 8.6 per cent increase in the number of people being paid Pension Credit, despite successive governments spending millions on trying to increase the take up and help people'​s retirement finances.

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The DWP had been using customer information to pinpoint those who would be eligible for Pension Credit and had then started to automatically pay the benefits for 12 weeks.

Minister for Pensions Steve Webb said that despite trying their best to make sure pensioners were getting what they were entitled to, the system was not working.

He added that over a million people were not receiving the Pension Credit they were entitled to.

While the research showed that the majority of people were happy to be told about the entitlements, most did not make any further claims despite the initial automatic payments.

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