10 elderly people a day made homeless

TEN elderly people are turning to councils every day because they are homeless.

A report by the Local Government Authority (LGA) found that the demand for help has increased by 130 per cent in eight years and predicts the rate will double by 2025.

Rising rents, illness and bereavement are fuelling the surge.

Figures show that between April and June, councils accepted 620 people aged over 60 as homeless.

Izzi Seccombe, of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “We are facing a ticking time bomb in older homelessness, with an alarming rise in the number of older people becoming homeless... at the current rate, this will spiral in just a few years.

“Homelessness is not just a housing issue. Homelessness and ill-health are intrinsically linked, and this is especially evident in elderly people.”

Polly Neate, of Shelter, added: “It’s astonishing our housing crisis has got so bad a record number of elderly people are turning up at councils needing help.”

She blames drastic cuts to welfare and a lack of affordable homes, adding: “It’s not only our young paying the price of a broken housing system but now the elderly, too.”

Shelter wants an end to the freeze on housing benefit in the Budget to help the elderly.