Pensioner poverty remains unchanged
12/05/2009
The latest figures on household poverty have shown that no progress has been made on tackling pensioner poverty - and the older the pensioner, the more likely they are to be worse off. The National Pensioners Convention (NPC), has yet again called on the government to raise the basic state pension and abandon means-testing as a way of tackling persistent poverty amongst the country’s older population.
According to the report 2.5m older people (or 1 in 4) are still living below the official poverty line of £158 a week, which is exactly the same figure as last year. The figures also showed that London and the East Midlands had the highest number of older people living in hardship: London had 22% of its pensioner population living in poverty, whilst the East Midlands had 21%. The other parts of the UK showed Wales and the North East at 19%, Yorkshire, the North West and the South West at 17% and the West Midlands, East of England, South East and Scotland at 16%.
Dot Gibson, NPC general secretary said: “In the last year the government has made absolutely no progress on reducing the scale of pensioner poverty. Every day older people face rising costs of living, falling interest rates and low pensions. The over-reliance on means-tested benefits - which at least 1.8m pensioners don’t claim - has failed and it’s time ministers realized that raising the basic state pension above the poverty level for all is the only way to end the scandal of poverty in retirement.”
The government claims the reason why no progress has been made in reducing the actual number of older people living in poverty is due to the rising cost of living and the insufficient take-up of means-tested benefits - especially Pension Credit. In fact the report shows that 6.2m older people were disabled, but only 2.4m were in receipt of disability benefits, and 6.7m pensioners had less than £10,000 in savings. In addition, the majority of pensioners in low income households were owner-occupiers - and single pensioners living alone, mainly women, had a higher risk of low income than all other groups. Sadly, the older the pensioner, the greater the likelihood of low income.
Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director for Age Concern and Help the Aged said: “These figures show that no concrete progress has been made in the fight against pensioner poverty over the past three years - and two million older people were in poverty before the recession even started.
“Now, after facing last year’s rocketing inflation, pensioners on low incomes are still struggling with high food and fuel prices, while watching their income from savings evaporate. The picture may well get gloomier as shrinking pension pots and high unemployment levels are condemning many older workers to a harsh retirement. With elections looming, these figures should sound a wake-up call for a government who must now set out clear commitment and timetable to end the burning shame of pensioner poverty.“