822 pensioners each day enter into poverty

The number of pensioners living below the poverty line in the UK has rises to 2.5 million in June 2008, the first increase since 1998.

In general terms, the poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living. This can mean different thing in different countries.

The specific definition as used by the UK Government with respect to UK poverty is:
‘household income below 60 per cent of median income’.

The median is the income earned by the household in the middle of the income distribution.

Recent cost of living increases, especially for essentials, is pushing more and more older people towards a debt management crisis.

A Spokesman for Help the Aged, said: “The government should be mortified by the latest rise in pensioner poverty: in a twelve-month period, an additional 300,000 pensioners have been forced into poverty. On average that’s around 822 pensioners each day.

“When older people live on a fixed income it is virtually impossible for them to pull themselves out of poverty. Pensioners often have to cut back on essential household items, just to survive. This is a disgrace.

“The government must take responsibility for the inequality so many older people face. Instead, each year the Treasury sits on more than £5bn 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,” he added.

The government announced in the 2008 budget that an additional £575m of funds would by made available for one-off payment to pensioners in winter to help cover the cost of fuel bills.

“These will reduce pensioner poverty in 2008-09. However, if the money is not found to repeat them, pensioner poverty may then increase again in the following year as it did in 2006-07,” the IFS spokesperson said.

The IFS is the Institute for Fiscal Studies. An independent research organisation, offering economic analysis, policy information and a variety of corporate resources.

Mike O’Brien, the pensions minister, said: “Pensioners are facing challenges with rising food and fuel costs. We need to build on the progress of 2 million pensioners taken out of absolute poverty since 1997.

“That’s why we’re spending £575 million increasing winter fuel payments this winter, working with energy companies to lower pensioner’s fuel bills, and making it simpler for pensioners to get all the help they’re entitled to, that is the goal.”

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