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16 July 2007

Government could save half a million pensioners from poverty, says new report

Half a million pensioners could instantly be saved from the poverty that blights their lives if the Government ensured full take-up of means tested benefits, according to a new report out today (16 July) (1). Research carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) on behalf of leading older people’s charity Help the Aged, confirms that full take-up of Council Tax Benefit, Housing Benefit and Pension Credit would take 500,000 pensioners out of poverty and 500,000 pensioners out of deep poverty (2).

2.2 million older people in the UK live in poverty and about half of them in deep poverty, well below the official poverty line. Millions of pensioners do not claim the benefits that are rightfully theirs. Help the Aged is challenging the new Brown Government to commit to tackling pensioner poverty once and for all by introducing a system of automatic payments to ensure full take-up of means tested benefits.

'Meeting the challenge – defeating pensioner poverty', a Help the Aged analysis of the IFS findings also highlights that:

• pensioner poverty will remain the same over the next 10 years unless there is a major overhaul of the system;
• linking the current Basic State Pension to average earnings in 2008 rather than 2012 would take 100,000 older people out of poverty;
• introducing a universal Basic State Pension would take half a million older people out of poverty and half a million out of deep poverty by 2017-18 (2); and
• at least 3.6 million women pensioners failed by the current system would benefit if everyone above retirement age was eligible for a full Basic State Pension.

Anna Pearson, Policy Manager for Help the Aged, says: 'This report is the undeniable proof that pensioner poverty can be overcome. In terms of options for tackling it, the Government is spoilt for choice.

'Automatic payment of benefits would make a massive difference to older people devastated by pensioner poverty. Half a million pensioners' lives could change dramatically overnight and it is a completely cost-effective way of tackling pensioner poverty. Even if it took the Brown Government a year to introduce automatic payments, the equivalent of 10,000 pensioners each week could be saved from crippling poverty.

'Three quarters of people aged 65 and over voted in the last General Election (1). The time has come for the Government to commit to tackling pensioner poverty once and for all.'

By the middle of the century it is expected that almost one in three adults in the UK will be aged 65 and over (3). Help the Aged is calling on the general public to write to their local Member of Parliament, demanding automatic payment of means tested benefits as well as justice for women pensioners and older people blighted by poverty.

For a copy of the Help the Aged analysis please visit /_press/_report.htm

For more information, contact: Siobhan McCann, Help the Aged press office, Tel: 020 7843 1596 or out-of-hours: 07730 912524

Notes to Editors

1. Meeting the challenge – defeating pensioner poverty, Help the Aged, 16 July 2007
2. Some pensioners may fall into both categories. Poverty is 60 per cent below median line and deep poverty is 50 per cent below median line before housing costs. Figures refer to England only.
3. www.gad.gov.uk 
4. The Help the Aged analysis is based on the full IFS report, 'Pensioner poverty over the next decade: what role for tax and benefit reform?' by Mike Brewer, James Browne, Carl Emmerson, Alissa Goodman, Alistair Muriel and Gemma Tetlow. To attend the IFS report launch event on Wednesday 18 July at 11.00am please visit http://www.ifs.org.uk/events.php?event_id=267
5. Help the Aged is the charity fighting to free disadvantaged older people in the UK and overseas from poverty, isolation, neglect and ageism. It campaigns to raise public awareness of the issues affecting older people and to bring about policy change. The Charity delivers a range of services: information and advice, home support and community living, including international development work. These are supported by its paid-for services and fundraising activities - which aim to increase funding in the future to respond to the growing unmet needs of disadvantaged older people. Help the Aged also funds vital research into the health issues and experiences of older people to improve the quality of later life.
6. Help the Aged has just updated its key free financial leaflets, Can You Claim It?, Questions on Pensions, and Claiming Disability Benefits with the support of a donation from Abbey’s Charitable Trust. To receive a free copy of a leaflet please call 020 7239 1845 or send a sae with the title of the leaflet you require to Information Resources, Help the Aged, 207 221 Pentonville Road, London N1 9UZ. Alternatively, the range of leaflets covering finances, health, housing and home safety, can be picked up from your local Help the Aged shop or downloaded from the Help the Aged website: www.helptheaged.org.uk
7. Help the Aged urgently needs donations and support to help it in the increasingly challenging fight to free disadvantaged older people from poverty, isolation and neglect. Visit www.helptheaged.org.uk  or call 0207 239 1982.