Older pensioners living in poverty

Important new research by Matt Barnes has helped shed light on the large inequalities in incomes among people in older age. The research, funded and published by Independent Age, draws on analysis of incomes data from the Family Resources Survey. It shows that there are huge variations in incomes of pensioners, with hundreds of thousands of older pensioners living below the poverty line. Some key headlines from the research are:

• older pensioners’ incomes are on average £59 a week lower than younger pensioners, and £112 a week lower than working age adults, or almost £6,000 a year
• a fifth of those aged 75 and over are living below the poverty line, including a quarter of single women aged 75 and over
• over 75s are also twice as likely as under 75s to have been in poverty persistently for the last four years

Read the report here http://www.independentage.org/media/1224217/pensioner-poverty-report_final_6516.pdf