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Around £10.5bn worth of income-related benefits went unclaimed in 2007-9 in Britain, which could have eased many people’s debt management issues.

The figures, published annually by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), showed that between 15 – 23% of all entitlement money went unclaimed from the five key income-related benefits – Income Support, Jobseekers Allowance, Pension Credit, and housing and council tax benefits.

The report showed that the take-up figures for three of the five benefits showed a slight decrease when compared with the previous year. Housing Benefit, Income Support and Council Tax Benefit all dropped by around one percentage point.

Jobseekers Allowance take-up remained relatively unchanged, and the proportion of people claiming Pension Credit rose by one percentage point.

Debt advice organisations have been urging people to claim all the benefits that they are entitled to, to ensure that they can maintain their credit commitments and other household bills.

Ivan Cooper, Chairman at the UK’s leading debt management company Chiltern said: “Many people do not claim because they aren’t aware that the benefit exists or that they are entitled to it. Often we find that they are confused by the complexity of the system, or they don’t want to appear as taking “handouts” from the state.

“More could be done to speed up the automatic allocation of these benefits, as over £10bn pounds has gone unclaimed. This could dramatically help those with debt problems who are in serious need of help with their debt management.”

Angela Eagle, Pensions minister, said: “We want to make sure that everyone is getting all of the help that they are entitled to and we are always working to make our benefits more accessible.”

Unclaimed benefits could ease debt management worries is a post from: Delta Debt Management & IVA Advice