No, my Lords. We do not have any precision on this, and that is one of the reasons that we want to look at it in the context of social care. Clearly, one will need to build a better evidence base rather than me extrapolating from a very thin one. The cat is small; it is possibly a kitten.
On the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, about potentially retaining AIPs until the age of 75, while the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, talked about the age of 80, we do not have a breakdown of age from the sample of AIP reviews that we have taken, but we have no evidence to suggest that older pensioners have more stable incomes than younger ones. Retaining AIPs for older pensioners would prevent us driving many of the inaccuracies out of the system and would lead to a two-tier system, whereas we want to see a single, understandable regime for everyone. Older pensioners are more likely to have indefinite AIPs already in place in April 2016 because they are being retained, so they should not experience any significant changes to their reporting requirements.
On the more detailed question about numbers raised by the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, on the breakdown between guarantee credit and savings credit, I do not have it to hand behind me right now, but I am happy to offer a letter providing that. I can confirm to him that someone who applies for pension credit can make a claim for housing benefit, but people will be encouraged to seek council tax support. As the noble Lord is fully aware, that scheme was localised in April of the current financial year.
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In terms of communication and interface, operations will have more flexibility in determining when to conduct reviews, as suggested by the noble Lord. Older people with more stable incomes should not see a significant increase in the contact they need to make with the department. Our communications will make it clear what changes need to be reported and when.
On the question about the meaning of the word “incorrect” from the noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock, the incorrectness relates to the information on which the award was based, not actually to what was happening. On her point about simplification, the current system has actually turned out to be more complex than had been expected, perhaps, by the noble Lord when he
devised it. This measure should simplify the process by reducing the number of complex and nugatory reviews. We are not changing entitlement rules, but just the process for reporting changes. We need to recognise, of course, that people will need to adapt to the new system.
On the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock, on the average figures used in the IA, they are mean figures, so the average mean loss is £13 and the gain is £6.30. The noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, and others asked about take-up. We are concerned to ensure that people take up their entitlement; we have developed a toolkit for customer groups and talked to people about pension credit when they claimed the state pension. I hope that I have covered all the ground I can.