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.

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.