We must look after the elderly

AGE Cymru’s last report said 84,000 older people in Wales live in poverty;

Just under 50,000 older people in Wales live in severe poverty on £183.50 per week or less;

200,000 older people report cutting back on food, heating, and social activities for financial reasons;

42,000 older people report getting into debt in recent years; with stories like a 91-year-old woman drying toilet paper on the radiator and eating just two boiled potatoes a day because she was so desperately short of money.

All older people should have an adequate standard of living. No-one should be faced with a calamitous reduction in their standard of living when they retire or be resigned to a life where they are forced to choose between basic essentials in order to make ends meet. “Yet unfortunately, many older people in Wales have to make these stark compromises and tough choices every day.”

This situation is preventable. In 2011/2012, Age Cymru and its network of local partners helped older people across Wales to claim £13 million in extra benefits.

Both the Tories in London and Labour in Cardiff Bay have failed to address pensioner poverty, in fact all poverty.

This is not just a nationalist point of view but a view from someone who wants to see wealth more fairly distributed. Who wants to live in a fair society? After all the UK is in the top five richest countries and we can’t afford to look after the most vulnerable?