Poor perceptions

from The Guardian

Stoical older people living on the breadline believe they are 'getting by', but is it time for a rethink on measuring poverty?

Mary O'Hara

Muriel Arthur is a 74-year-old widow and lives alone. She gets by on a state pension, disability allowance and a small occupational pension. Every week she buys a treat: a single bunch of flowers. It is one of the few regular "luxuries" she allows herself, apart from an occasional lottery ticket or glass of whiskey. "I don't have to go without anything," she says of not having much money. "If I'd got half-a-dozen eggs and I had a boiled egg and a piece of toast every morning and, like, six tins of soup ... you don't have to go without."

Daniel O'Brien, 62, also lives alone and has similarly stoical views about what constitutes the essentials of life. "I think if you have enough to eat and a bed to lie in it's as much as any [one] can do."

Nellie Gordon, a 98-year-old who lives independently with the help of various agencies, sums up how she makes decisions about what needs to be prioritised. "I keep the heating on," she says. "That's the one thing I do not economise on. The place is always kept warm."

Like many older people in Britain who are accustomed to living close to or in poverty, what Arthur, O'Brien and Gordon regard as the necessities and luxuries of life are not necessarily the same as those used in official measurements of poverty. In fact, according to a new study, poverty indicators that rely on measurements such as income relative to the rest of the population offer only a partial explanation of the issue. What needs to be understood, it argues, is how much older people's perception of their circumstances matters both to tracking levels of poverty and to doing something about it.

The study, commissioned by the charity Help the Aged, sought to delve beyond the limited scope of statistics, so researchers conducted in-depth interviews with older people from a range of backgrounds. It makes no claim to be a comprehensive piece of research. It involved no quantitative or data collecting element and does not attempt to be a substitute for hard data on the subject. What it does do, however, is tap into a rich seam of personal experience and perceptions of poverty.

As well as painting a picture of a generation of people who, like Arthur, O'Brien and Gordon, are stoical in the face of financial difficulty, the report highlights individual views. Among them are the sometimes humiliating encounters older people have with the services that are supposed to make their lives easier - in particular the welfare and benefits system.

Edward Taylor, 70, was his mother's carer in the later years of her life and now cares for his wife, who has severe respiratory problems. He says his troubles stem mainly from battling with bureaucrats for support. "For two years or more I did everything for my mother," he recalls. "I bathed her. I wiped her behind. I did everything before ... somebody decided ... that wasn't the job of a son."

There is a sense from Taylor and others in the study that older people, whether living independently or not, frequently feel under siege by what they see as an inadequate welfare system and a complex and unfair benefits system. "I despised going in [to the social services office]," Taylor says. "The woman says: 'Look at it this way, Mr Taylor, if your wife was the carer, and for obvious reasons a woman won't pick up a full pension, we would make up the shortfall [in funding for care] but because you're over [the income limit] I'm sorry.'"

Dorothy Ellis, who, like Taylor, is the main carer for her spouse - who has Parkinson's disease - says welfare officials' lack of understanding of people's real living circumstances makes matters worse. She says: "They should go and live with somebody with a disability for a day or two and find out what goes on, because they do not know how hard it is."

There is a palpable sense of disappointment at the way broader needs such as transport and access to services are neglected. Interviewees saw those in power as having made their everyday existence harder by orchestrating the closure of essential local services, such as post offices, and by not providing efficient public transport, particularly in rural areas??.

Gordon says: "We had [a post office] here, not far away. I could walk to it in five or 10 minutes. Now we haven't got one at all till we get to [the nearest town], which is getting on for three miles away."

The report's authors are calling for a rethink of how policy directed at older people in poverty is made. They say more research of this kind is needed, especially if policy makers are to understand the experience of the most marginalised older people. The report concludes: "A key question remains. How do the experiences of later life of the least well-off and the most inaccessible older people challenge our preconceptions of poverty, disadvantage and social exclusion?"

· Necessities of Life: Older People's Experiences of Poverty, price £10 plus £1.75 p&p, is available from Help the Aged on 020 7239 1946, helptheaged.org.uk