![Tackling poverty in later life conference 2024](/assets/images/PilgrimsFriend_IndependentAge_Conference.jpg)
Friday 14th June 2024
Tackling poverty in later life conference 2024
Hosted by the financial hardship charity Independent Age, the conference brought together older people affected by poverty and those across the sector committed to confronting the challenges
“I haven’t had the heating on in my little flat for six years and I don’t have hot water. To go somewhere and find hot water coming out of the tap is a novelty.”
These words come from Marion, one of four older people living on a low income or in a deprived area of the UK who is part of the event’s first discussion panel. Each has a powerful lived experience to relay.
We also hear from Rob who is stuck in the private rental sector – he lives in Cornwall where holiday homes and rentals are squeezing out local people – and is scared of what will happen when he can no longer work and pay the rent.
Aftab from a centre for the elderly in Leeds tells us the heartbreaking story of an older person who died alone at home and wasn’t discovered for a week. In the community where he lives, there’s shame attached to asking for help.
Then there’s Yvonne who shares how her first application for pension credit – a means-tested benefit for those over state pension age – was turned down. It was only after a tenacious employee from the Citizens Advice bureau took up her cause that she started receiving the benefit – albeit five years into retirement. “It’s made all the difference,” she says. “It’s meant I can go out for coffee with friends or afford new underwear when I’ve needed it.”
These stories paint a powerful picture of the reality of life for many older people in the UK. The charity Independent Age estimates that there are two million older people living in poverty and that, as its campaign highlights, is Two Million Too Many.
Next, we hear projections for poverty trends for an ageing society and things get more chastening still. Professor David Robinson from the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CACHE) takes us through the findings of the ‘Keys to the future’ report. Existing data shows that older renters are disproportionately likely to be in poverty compared with those who own their own home. Based on current trends, by 2040 the percentage of older private renters across the country could treble. This means the forecast for the poverty rate in later life could almost double from 2.1 million to 3.9 million. Two million too many could easily become four million too many.
David Orr, Chair of the Good Home Inquiry, and Conor O’Shea from Generation Rent flesh out some of the reasons why living in privately rented accommodation is so precarious. Among current rental stock are 26 million homes classified as the oldest and poorest quality in Europe. Problems include mould, damp and poor insulation. Tenants are too scared to complain because they could be evicted with only two months’ notice with no reason given. Aside from that, in the midst of a cost of living crisis rents are going up. And if the state pension doesn’t keep pace, it soon becomes impossible to make ends meet.
And yet, as another panellist points out, we’re not without hope. Helen Barnard from The Trussell Trust shares how back in 1998 29% of older people were facing poverty. A few years later that figure had reduced to 13%. She puts it down to “a concerted national effort” to turn things around. What made the difference then? Greater home ownership, better pensions and an improved social security system. If we turned things around once, we can do it again.
![Pilgrims Friend Independent Age Poverty2](/assets/images/_300x382_crop_center-center_none/PilgrimsFriend_IndependentAge_Poverty2.jpg 300w, /assets/images/_500x636_crop_center-center_none/PilgrimsFriend_IndependentAge_Poverty2.jpg 500w, /assets/images/_1000x1272_crop_center-center_none/PilgrimsFriend_IndependentAge_Poverty2.jpg 1000w, /assets/images/_1800x2289_crop_center-center_none/PilgrimsFriend_IndependentAge_Poverty2.jpg 1800w)
After a break for lunch, the final session explores the stigma around poverty in later life. Ruth Boyle from The Poverty Alliance shares how a sense of shame can stop people accessing society security services. “There’s a perception that people in older age are financially well-off. If you are poor by older age you have failed by societal standards,” she says, “People also think that others are more deserving than them – children, for example.”
Ruth shares how the devolved Government in Scotland has introduced some measures to help counter these narratives. “Benefits is viewed as dirty word,” says Ruth. “We use the term social security payments instead.” Another measure is a charter that enshrines ‘social security as a human right and public service to be proud of’.
Glenda, a campaigner who has advocated for victims of the Windrush Scandal, also testifies to a prevailing sense of shame among older people, particularly men. “They would rather suffer in financial hardship than come forward to claim benefits,” she says.
Also on the panel is Ruby, a Money Reporter with The Mirror. She holds her hands up and admits that journalism has added fuel to the fire of stigma around poverty, using inflammatory language like ‘benefits scroungers’. However, she also shares how things in the newsroom are shifting. One of her stories drew attention to a couple in their sixties who were tipped into poverty through an error by the Department for Work and Pensions. Not knowing where to turn, they contacted The Mirror who took up the story and managed to get the mistake reversed.
At Pilgrims’ Friend Society we’re supporting the campaign by Independent Age for a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing for England. And so it was interesting to hear from panellist Helena Herklots, the Older People’s Commissioner already in post for Wales. She shared how she’s been able to advocate for older people, including the scrapping of an idea to remove free buses for over-60s, a move that would have had huge adverse consequences for many older people such as unpaid carers.
![Pilgrims Friend tacklingpoverty3](/assets/images/_300x400_crop_center-center_none/PilgrimsFriend_tacklingpoverty3.jpg 300w, /assets/images/_500x667_crop_center-center_none/PilgrimsFriend_tacklingpoverty3.jpg 500w, /assets/images/_1000x1334_crop_center-center_none/PilgrimsFriend_tacklingpoverty3.jpg 1000w, /assets/images/_1800x2400_crop_center-center_none/PilgrimsFriend_tacklingpoverty3.jpg 1800w)
Helena takes issue with the language used to describe older people. “The word ‘pensioner’ others a whole group of older people. They are ‘different’ from you and me, it’s working people versus pensioners. It implies if you are a pensioner you are not contributing,” she says. The reality is that for working people there will come a point when they become a pensioner too. “You are actually discriminating against your future self.”
There’s a lot to take in. One thing I’m struck by is the sheer number of people in the room who are standing up to say that the way our society is treating older people is not right and that something must be done. That goes not just for the panellists, but also my fellow audience members. I chat to attendees from The Salvation Army, the National Association for Social Prescribing and the Living Wage Foundation, each in their own way advocating for and empowering older people.
An election always brings an opportunity for change and there is plenty of willpower in the room from those committed to the cause. At Pilgrims’ Friend Society, we’ve been doing our own thinking around how the next Government could move away from a top-down approach to adult social care. Our document ‘Empowering communities to care’ sets out how we could rethink the whole system by better resourcing the local people and organisations best placed to help those who are older and more vulnerable.
We’re already starting to share this document with people in positions of influence and, once our next Government is in place, we’ll be making sure they have a copy. And if, as is our prayer, they are bold enough to embrace a local approach they will find an army of ready and willing individuals and organisations across the charity and non-profit sector.
More on the big issues that affect older people...
Empowering communities to care
We believe that unlocking local resources is key to transforming how society cares for an ageing population
![Pilgrims Frined Independent Age lady](/assets/images/_300x178_crop_center-center_98_none/PilgrimsFrined_Independent_Age_lady.jpg 300w, /assets/images/_500x297_crop_center-center_98_none/PilgrimsFrined_Independent_Age_lady.jpg 500w)
A Statement of Intent on pensioner poverty
We're supporting a Statement of Intent on tackling pensioner poverty from the charity Independent Age