Disgrace of another 300,000 pensioners being "forced into poverty"

By Jayne Warren - 10/06/2008

The latest 'Households Below Average Income figures' published on June 10th have shown that an additional 300,000 pensioners have been forced into poverty - on average that’s around 822 pensioners each day. The figures have been described by Help The Aged as "a disgrace" - whilst the Government is claiming that "the vast majority of people are better off than they were ten years ago".

 

The exact number of pensioners in relative poverty are calculated in two ways: "Before housing costs" (BHC) and "After housing costs "(AHC). Between 2005/06 and 2006/07 the figures for "relative pensioner poverty" rose by 300,000 to 2.5million (BHC) and by 200,000 (AHC) to 2.1 million. However, the Government is keen to point out that between 1998/99 and 2006/07 the total number of pensioners in relative poverty has fallen by 200,000 (BHC) and 900,000 (AHC), which makes the recent rises in poverty levels "disappointing".

 

But surely the cause is obvious - the escalating cost of living combined with a fixed income. Mervyn Kohler, Special Adviser for Help the Aged, said: “The Government should be mortified by the latest rise in pensioner poverty. When older people live on a fixed income it is virtually impossible for them to pull themselves out of poverty, and they often have to cut back on essential household items just to survive. It's a disgrace."

 

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions James Purnell said: "We've lifted 900,000 pensioners out of relative poverty and 1.9 million out of absolute poverty. Had the Government done nothing other than simply uprate the tax and benefit system, we estimate there would have been 1.5 million more pensioners in poverty today."

 

But Mervyn Kohler added: “Each year the Treasury sits on more than £5 billion of unclaimed benefits which should go to older people. While this figure may make the Chancellor rub his hands together with glee, this daylight robbery of older people must not be allowed to continue.

 

“It is up to the Government to ensure older people get the benefits they’re entitled to and these should be paid automatically.  The spirit in some parts of the Government seems willing, but unfortunately for the one in four pensioners living in poverty, the flesh in the Treasury seems weak.”

 

Meanwhile the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) joined in the criticisms of the figures. Dot Gibson, NPC vice president, said: “It is a shocking indictment of the government’s pensions’ policy that the number of older people in poverty is higher now than five years ago. For years ministers have relied on both means-tested benefits and the availability of company pension schemes to provide a decent income in retirement - but the whole basis of this strategy is unravelling.

 

"Means-testing remains inefficient and unpopular and most pensioners receive less than £2000 a year from their occupational pensions. In light of the current increases in the costs of living - pensioners simply cannot afford to survive. The government has said it will restore the link between the state pension and earnings in 2012, but by that time around three million of today’s pensioners will be dead - and the pension’s purchasing power will have continued to fall.

 

“It is completely unacceptable that in the centenary year of the first ever state pension, millions of older people are still living in poverty. If a society is judged by how it treats its older citizens, then we are seriously failing. Pensioners don’t want charity - they have earned the right to a decent state pension that is set above the poverty level and rises each year in line with earnings. It is time the government realised that older people deserve better.”