Inflation rise will force more older people into poverty

Britain's biggest older people's organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), claims that millions of older people are now on the brink of poverty, following the latest figures released today showing a further increase in inflation.

The official poverty figures show that 2.5m (23% of the pensioner population) are living on less than £151 a week. Up to 61% of all pensioner couples have an annual income of £15,000, whilst 45% of all single pensioners live on just £10,000 a year.

Between 1997 and 2006, the number of people living in severe poverty – defined as living on less than 40% of median population income – increased by 600,000. The poorest quarter of pensioner households saw their incomes rise by less than 1% last year, well below inflation. The poorest single pensioners saw their real incomes drop by 4%.

Joe Harris, NPC general secretary said: “Nearly three million pensioner households already spend over 10% of their income on energy and are living in fuel poverty. If you add onto household bills things like food and council tax, millions more older people could be using as much as 70% of their income just to keep their house warm and eat a decent meal[i]. That doesn’t leave very much at the end of the week to enjoy life.”

“The real reason pensioners are suffering is because they spend a higher proportion of their income on those items that are rising fastest – whilst the purchasing power of their state pension continues to decline. It’s a shocking indictment of the government’s pensions’ policy that the number of older people in poverty is higher now than five years ago and things look set to get worse. It’s time the government used the growing surplus in the national insurance fund to pay everyone a decent pension above the poverty line of £151 a week that rises every year in line with the greater of inflation or earnings. In light of the current increases in the costs of living – pensioners simply cannot afford to survive.”

For more information contact Neil Duncan-Jordan on 07940-357-608
[i] For a single pensioner living on the pension credit guarantee of £124.05 a week, fuel, food and council tax bills can equal as much as 70% of their annual income