Press Release

Government must act to help pensioners reach basic living standard

Responding to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on 'minimum income standards' for people living in Britain, Mervyn Kohler, Special Adviser for Help the Aged, says: 

"This research confirms what we have known for some time – that the Basic State Pension does not provide many pensioners with enough money to enjoy a basic standard of living.

"With benefits on top of the pension, older people would have a better chance of living lives that experts think is a minimum standard, but they have to battle a convoluted means tested system to claim them.

"More than £5 billion in unclaimed benefits for older people lines the pockets of the Treasury each year, instead of helping pensioners reach towards a basic living standard. It’s disgraceful and high time benefits were paid to older people automatically.

"The JRF minimum income standard actually sits above the poverty line. With 2.5 million pensioners languishing in poverty with little chance of lifting themselves out, it is up to the Government to ensure they reach a basic standard of living – paying benefits automatically would go a long way to achieving that aim."

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