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Living Costs too High for Seniors to Live Comfortably

Written by on 20 May, 2009

According to a report produced by Age Concern in April 2009, 24 per cent of seniors – the equivalent of 2.5 million people – believe that their quality of life has deteriorated during the past year. This is 400,000 higher than just 12 months earlier. A further two-thirds of those questioned answered that there had been little or no material improvement in their standard of living.

A staggering one in five seniors – 2 million people – are now living below the poverty line. An alarming 22 per cent of seniors are skipping meals, and as many as 25 per cent are cutting back on food. In addition, a further 42 per cent are struggling to afford essential items, 41 per cent are reducing the amount of electricity used and 38 per cent are minimising gas consumption. As the rest of the nation struggles with debt during the economic downturn, this repost reveals senior citizens are struggling for basic living conditions.

The report also found seven out of ten seniors are reverting to the skills developed during the war and post-war years. Savings are achieved in a number of ways by using these skills, such as, including cooking from scratch rather than buying ready-made meals (87%), using left-over food (71%), shopping for food in the reduced sections at the end of the day (54%), sewing or mending items for themselves or others (50%) and growing their own vegetables (29%).

A total of 68 per cent of seniors feel that they aren’t regarded as important by politicians. It, therefore, isn’t surprising that 59 per cent of them are not confident that the government will help older people cope during the economic downturn. These figures come despite a promise of extra help from Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell in March 2009.

The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 was introduced to protect seniors from age discrimination in employment, training and adult education. The effectiveness of this legislation has been questioned by Age Concern. As many as one in three people now believe that age discrimination has actually worsened during the past five years.

Men aged over 50 have only a 20 per cent chance of being in the same job just two years later. To make matters worse, once they lose their job, the chance of them finding suitable employment falls by a further quarter with each and every passing year. Total unemployment is rising in the 50 plus age group by 34.8 per cent more than any other age category.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) believes that scrapping the compulsory retirement age could mean an additional half a billion pounds to the UK economy. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Lord Turner share this belief. Whilst the UK government has scrapped compulsory retirement for public sector workers, it has failed to do so for all employees. There are currently 89 MP’s that would have been forcibly retired had they faced the same rules as others.

As well as affecting the UK economy compulsory retirement significantly reduces retirement income. Seniors that are forced to leave a direct contribution pension scheme lose out on £400 of additional income every year for the remainder of their life.

Age Concern’s ‘One Voice’ report concluded by setting out seven priorities for action in 2009, including outlawing the compulsory retirement age, helping with ‘age-proofing’ employment skills and spending an additional £1 to 2 billion on social care.

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