Today is ‘State Pension Shortfall Day’; the day of the year when the average spending retiree would run out of state pension benefits.

Four months before the end of the year, people across the UK are stretching every penny to make the most out of their annual £8,767.

The average annual spending for a one-person retired household is £13,265, creating a gap of nearly £4,500.

Pensioner poverty in the UK is a real problem, and those that were unable or unwilling to save into a workplace or private pension during their working lives are affected the most.

Some retirees may be able to get by, as they earned enough throughout their life to buy a house and pay off their mortgage or have friends and family that can help support them, but some people weren’t so privileged.

The average rent for a two-bedroom home at the bottom quarter of the market in England is £500 per month, or £6,000 per year, 68 per cent of state pension income.

Of course, there are benefits available to retirees for cheaper housing and help with heating bills, but the discontinuation of free TV licences to over-75s and higher living costs suggests that retiring comfortably is going to become an increasingly difficult task.

Even if someone relying solely on the state pension is able to put a roof over their head, keep the heating on, put food on the table and keep up with water and electricity bills, with no extra cash available it is not going to be enjoyable existence.

People that are lonely in retirement are being hit with a double-whammy of a below-adequate state pension and living out their days in near-solitude.

The problem is slightly less pressing for pensioner couples, but even they would run out of state pension income on 31 August and must find an extra £8,710 between them to keep the average spending level up till the new year.

The figures highlight how important it is to save into a workplace or private pension, which should improve due to the introduction of auto-enrolment, but also indicates the level of poverty amongst some of the most vulnerable people in society.

A solution would be difficult to determine, with people living longer and the significant gap meaning that national insurance rises would be undesirable, but cutting benefits such as the TV licences is only compounding the problem.

Pensioners relying on the state pension need to be aware of all the support available to them, including pension credit and the winter fuel allowance, and how to get it, because running out of money four months before the turn of the year is unacceptable in any developed nation.

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