Elderly caught in poverty trap

from the Norwich Evening News

Dan Grimmer

Thousands of Norfolk's pensioners are being plunged into poverty as they struggle to cope with increasing levels of debt.

New figures reveal that a staggering 26,400 people in Norfolk over the age of 60 are now officially classed as “income deprived”.

The figure accounts for 12.9pc of all over 60s in the county and Norwich is the worst affected area with 4,700 (18.5pc) living in poverty.

As the state pension fails to keep pace with inflation, many pensioners are falling heavily into debt and struggling to pay off rising energy bills, council tax, costs of care and the general cost of living.

Today, as county council chiefs announced a major study into the problem, warnings were made that poverty amongst the elderly will get worse unless drastic action is taken to give them more support.

Norwich Citizens' Advice Bureau deals with growing numbers of elderly people getting in touch with debt problems.

Andy Cobb, who manages the charity's Debtline, said today: “We are definitely seeing more elderly people. We get people in their 80s who are crippled with debt.

“That might seem a surprise because if you are retired and you want to borrow money you might think banks would be cautious to lend it. But they are lending ludicrous amounts and then complaining when people cannot pay it back.

“The cost of fuel and council tax keeps going up and if people are already in debt they can find themselves in a lot of trouble.

“For some of them the best thing might be for them to declare bankruptcy but for that generation there is still a stigma attached to that.”

The problem will be discussed by Norfolk County Council's cabinet scrutiny committee on Tuesday .

Committee chairman Irene Macdonald said: “Norfolk has an increasing number of older people and in the 21st Century it is simply not acceptable that a significant number are living in poverty.

“It is something everyone, including the county council, needs to address and which the scrutiny committee is keen to examine.”

The county council is developing a string of measures to try to tackle the problem by focusing on three main areas - income poverty, debt and fuel poverty.

One problem is that older people are not claiming their full benefits, such as attendance allowance and disability living allowance.

A typical example is a man in his late 70s whose benefits were increased from his £84.25 state retirement pension to £202.45 after the council's joint visitor team helped him apply for other benefits he was entitled to.

Rex Humphrey, from Age Concern Norfolk, will address the county council meeting to give his views about the current situation and the number of older people living in poverty in the county.

Today he said: “We have to make sure that older people can lead full and active lives but you need an adequate income to do that.

“Because of their very nature pensioners find themselves on fixed incomes and those who have not built up a personal pension and are reliant on state benefits can find themselves struggling with the cost of living, fuel bills and the cost of care.

“Benefit take-up is vital because there is money which is not being claimed which could help these people. We are working closely with the councils to ensure there is a full take-up of benefits.”

We reported last week how some elderly people in the city were having to make the shocking choice about whether to eat a meal or heat their homes, because some 9,000 homes in Norwich are deemed to be suffering from fuel poverty.

An Affordable Warmth Strategy is being pulled together by agencies including Norwich City Council to stop the needless suffering, which will have led to the death of almost 80 people before the year is out.

Pensioners received a rare piece of good news this week when British Gas announced it was cutting its bills by 17 per cent - but that comes after the firm had upped gas prices seven times since 2002 and electricity tariffs six times.

Last year the Evening News highlighted the plight of elderly people in the county's care homes. Our week-long investigation revealed people had to sell their homes to pay for care while inspectors had “significant concerns” over standards at more than 20 homes in the county.

# You can telephone the Citizens' Advice Bureau debtline on 01603 679678.

# Do you think more needs to be done to stop pensioners being plunged into debt? Write to Evening News Letters, Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich, NR1 1RE, email eveningnewsletters@archant.co.uk or visit www.eveningnews24.co.uk/forums