ITV This Morning: Martin Lewis gets 'very annoying' message

The Money Saving Expert was appearing on the show on Tuesday when Holly Willoughby addressed him with a comment from a viewer about Pension Credit.

The presenter said: “A viewer says ‘I am under the weekly income threshold of under £214.60 but when I called the helpline, I was told very abruptly that Martin Lewis was wrong’.

“They were told that they needed to be in receipt of Attendance Allowance which they are in the process of applying for and waiting for the forms to come through.”

Mel Stride, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Image: PA)

Responding, Martin said: “Ok, Pension Credit. That is a very, very annoying message to get.

“And I will explain again, there is a confusion here and I am also very unhappy to hear what the Pension Credit hotline has said.

“Pension Credit is a top up to your income if you are a state pensioner on a low income. In some circumstances, and they are complicated, such as if you are on attendance allowance you can earn more than £203 a week as a state pensioner and still get Pension Credit.

“I have a rule of thumb and that is if you have total weekly income under £220 it is worth checking whether you are entitled to Pension Credit. For pensioner couples with income under £320 it is worth checking.

“I have an agreement with the pensions minister that I will be pushing this message out, that one million people eligible for Pension Credit are not receiving it.

“To hear someone on that hotline saying that Martin Lewis is wrong when I am giving an agreed message and I am being encouraged by the minister to get that message out means that they have not got the memo.

“The whole point is we are working together to get pensioners to not to be scared to ask if they should be getting Pension Credit.”

What is Pension Credit?

Pension Credit is designed to help people over State Pension age and on a low income with daily living costs, though you do not need to be in receipt of State Pension to receive it.

It tops up a person’s income to a minimum of £201.56 per week for single pensioners and to £306.85 for couples.

Currently, around 1.4 million pensioners in Britain receive Pension Credit. However, many are still not claiming this extra financial help.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has sent letters out to 11,000 people to stress the importance of signing up for Pension Credit.

The average Pension Credit award is worth over £3,500 a year and even a small Pension Credit award can provide access to a wide range of other benefits – such as help with housing costs, council tax or heating bills – in addition to the extra cost of living payments.