Accessibility Features
Accessibility | Skip to Start of Article | Skip to Search | Skip to Navigation Menu | Skip to Themes | Skip to Regions | Skip to Members Sign InAccessibility Features
Accessibility | Skip to Start of Article | Skip to Search | Skip to Navigation Menu | Skip to Themes | Skip to Regions | Skip to Members Sign In
Fifteen thousand pensioners in Northern Ireland could instantly be saved from the poverty that blights their lives if the Government ensured full take-up of means tested benefits, according to research carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) on behalf of leading older people’s charity Help the Aged.
Full take up of means tested benefits could lift 15,000 pensioners out of poverty. Poverty is measured as being 50% below median line before housing costs.
Research carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) on behalf of leading older people’s charity Help the Aged confirms full take-up of Housing Benefit, Pension Credit and Rate Relief in Northern Ireland would take 15,000 pensioners out of poverty.
75,000 older people in Northern Ireland live in poverty, about half of them in deep poverty, well below the official poverty line. Millions of pensioners throughout the UK do not claim the benefits that are rightfully theirs.
Help the Aged is challenging the new Brown Government to commit to tackling pensioner poverty once and for all by introducing a system of automatic payments to ensure full take-up of means tested benefits.
'Meeting the challenge – defeating pensioner poverty' a Help the Aged analysis of the IFS findings also highlights that:
Duane Farrell, Head of Policy, Research and Communications at Help the Aged in Northern Ireland, says:
"This report is the undeniable proof that pensioner poverty can be overcome. In terms of options for tackling it, the Government is spoilt for choice.
"Automatic payment of benefits would make a massive difference to older people devastated by pensioner poverty. Thousands of pensioners in Northern Ireland - over half a million across the UK – could see their lives changed dramatically overnight and it is a completely cost-effective way of tackling pensioner poverty. Even if it took the Brown Government a year to introduce automatic payments, the equivalent of 11,500 pensioners in the UK each week could be saved from crippling poverty.
"Three quarters of people aged 65 and over voted in the last General Election. The time has come for the Government to commit to tackling pensioner poverty once and for all."
By the middle of the century it is expected that almost one in three adults in the UK will be aged 65 and over. Help the Aged is calling on the general public to write to their local Member of Parliament, demanding automatic payment of means tested benefits as well as justice for women pensioners and older people blighted by poverty.
Footer
NICVA | 61 Duncairn Gardens | Belfast | BT15 2GB
Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action is registered as a company limited by guarantee in Northern Ireland (No 1792) and is registered as a charity for tax purposes with the Inland Revenue