Older pensioners are getting poorer

Report warns over-75s are more likely to fall below the poverty line and need state pension guarantees

The gap between the incomes of over-75s and younger pensioners is widening for the first time in a decade, with experts warning that the wartime generation is suffering in silence. A study found the average income of over-75s is now £59 a week less than that of younger pensioners – a gap that is £8 larger than 10 years ago. Elderly women were at most risk of poverty.

THE gap between the incomes of over75s and younger pensioners is widening for the first time in a decade, figures show, with experts warning that the wartime generation is suffering in silence. A study by Independent Age, a charity for the elderly, found the average income of over-75s is now £59 a week less than that of younger pensioners – a gap that is £8 larger than 10 years ago.

Elderly women are at an increased risk of becoming poor, it found, as they have significantly lower incomes.

This is because they are more likely to be living by themselves as a result of being widowed, and also due to the fact they have lower incomes after taking on a traditional role in the home, rather than working.

Last night experts said MPs, who have recently consulted on the sustainability of a “triple-locked” state pension, would be making a big mistake by removing the protection. The triple lock promises to increase the pension every year by the highest of three figures: the rise in inflation, the rise in earnings or a minimum of 2.5 per cent.

Steve Webb, former pensions minister and retirement director at Royal London, a pension firm, said: “The tri- ple lock is absolutely vital for people who have been retired the longest.

“Once they’ve been retired 20 or 30 years the effect of inflation really takes its toll, and finding the money for emergencies, like buying a new fridge or washing machine, becomes impossible.

“The war generation have been taught not to complain about things, but to soldier on instead. Policymakers must be careful not to ignore them just because they don’t have much of a voice or a media presence.”

While higher incomes from private pensions and earnings have helped push up pensioner incomes overall in the past five years, older pensioners have missed out.

Those in their sixties and early seventies, in particular, have enjoyed increased average income from the state pension as a result of being entitled to a top-up, introduced in the Eighties, called the “state second pension”.

But as older pensioners were retired or close to retirement when this was brought in, they have not benefited.

State pension entitlement levels for baby-boomer women are also higher than for over-75s as a result of their greater participation in the workforce.

The report also found older pensioners were more likely to experience persistent poverty over years. It says an estimated 950,000 ( 20 per cent) of older pensioners live in poverty. Within this age group it is women, single pensioners and those who do not own their own homes who are at greatest risk.

Independent Age’s classes a pensioner as poor if they have an income of less than £182 a week.