Our latest State of the Countryside update includes new information about the take-up of pension credit in rural England:

• 42% of all eligible rural pensioners are non-recipients of pension credit
  
• in villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings it's 54%. 
• we estimate that more than 250,000 pensioners in rural areas are not claiming their entitlement.
  

We're encouraging organisations in rural communities to work with us to ensure that people in rural areas are aware of their entitlement. Increased take-up of benefits could reduce pensioner poverty dramatically.

Read the full press release

This State of the Countryside update is part of our ongoing work to tackle specific aspects of rural disadvantage. In the new year we'll be producing new information which shows how, working alongside the financial services sector, positive steps can be taken to promote financial inclusion in rural areas .