Oldest Brits 'face tough times'

29/04/2009

Britain's older retirees are facing a major income squeeze due to increased lifestyle costs, a major new report has revealed.

The Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) said that financial needs decline from when a person is in their 60s and when they are in their 70s.

However, these costs start to go up in later decades, due to increasing deaths of spouses, general disability and rising care bills.

The report chimes with recent figures from Alliance Trust, an insurer, showing that price rises for Britain's over-75s were over 50 per cent higher than average, due to the higher amounts relative to income older people spend on food and fuel.

In the PPI study, it was also argued that the value of state pensions decline, relative to the general population, as payments are linked to prices rather than earnings.

Niki Cleal, PPI director, said: "Pensioners may not have sufficient resources to meet all of their extra needs in later life, such as to meet the additional costs of disability, widowhood or the need for long-term care and to maintain their desired standard of living.

"This research shows that pensioners will need a range of assets and sources of income to help them cope with the uncertainty and extra costs they may face later in their life as a result of the onset of disability, widowhood or the need for long-term care."

Tags; Budgeting Advice, Retirement Money Problems,

• Share
• 
• 
• Store
• 
• Follow
•