PENSIONERS are claiming an extra £600,000 in benefits which they did not think they were entitled to, thanks to a campaign run by Lancashire County Council.

Now all pensioners are being urged to contact the authority's welfare rights service to see if they are entitled to benefits which they are not claiming at the moment.

The results of a survey carried out by Welfare Rights into last year's project to promote the take-up of income support have revealed that the number of successful claims has doubled, from an estimated 541 in 2000 to 1085 last year.

Weekly benefits ranged from a few pence to £86 in one case, while the average reported weekly cash gain was £11.47.

County Coun Niki Penney, cabinet member for communications, information and lifelong learning, said: "Every year since 1992 we have worked in partnership with our district colleagues to run this campaign.

"Using their housing and council tax benefit records the district councils identify people who could potentially be entitled to Income Support.

"They send them a letter advising them to make a claim by filling in a coupon which is forwarded to us here at Welfare Rights.

"We in turn send the coupon to the Department for Work and Pensions who send out a claim pack. To judge the success of the campaign we wrote to a 10 per cent sample of the people who have sent us coupons asking them if they made a claim and if it was successful. "

Last year's total brings the estimated annual sum gained in payments for more than 10,000 claims since 1992 to £7.1m.

Any pensioners who think they might be entitled to income support but who do not know how to go about claiming should contact their local Welfare Rights Office or write to: Lancashire County Council Welfare Rights Service FREEPOST Preston PR1 8BR.