Response to official statistics showing that one in three older people are now living in poverty - 10 June 2008

The news is currently dominated by widespread public concern about the impact of the credit crunch, the rising cost of living, the price of food and petrol. As these statistics show, many older people are already facing financial worries so the impact of the economic climate could be disproportionately felt by them. Older people are already experiencing their food and fuel bills rising at a faster rate than their pensions.

As a charity, we support pensioners living in poverty, focusing on making regular payments, grants and loans to help older people lead independent and worry free lives. We currently support 6,000 older people, which is a bare fraction of the 2.1 million pensioners now living in poverty.

We urge the government to tackle the issue of the £5 billion benefits that go left unclaimed by older people and bring forward the date for restoring the link between the basic state pension and earnings.