The government has been urged to establish a commissioner for older people and ageing, after research from the Centre for Ageing Better suggested that recent progress against pensioner poverty could be under threat.

The report found that, amongst UK adults, people aged 60-64 now have the highest rate of relative poverty (25 per cent), and the average annual income of the poorest 20 per cent of retired individuals is below the minimum amount needed to live on.

This means that the country’s poorest retirees, including those solely reliant on the state pension, have an annual income estimated to leave £41 for a weekly food shop and insufficient funds to run their own car or service their boiler.

In addition to this, the report revealed that relative pensioner poverty is at one of its highest rates this century at almost 18 per cent and is more than four percentage points higher than a decade ago. 

This means that 2.1 million pensioners in the UK have an income that is less than 60 per cent of the national average.

The research also found broader evidence of a growing financial crisis among the country’s older population, as more than one million pensioners said that they have no savings, and almost half of people aged 50-69 in serious financial difficulties ate less than they felt they should this Summer as they didn’t have enough money for food.

Renting costs also present a concern, as the proportion of older savers in rented accommodation has reached its highest point ever, with almost 2 million of those aged 50 and over renting.

What's more, over a third (37 per cent) of pensioners who rented homes privately were in poverty.

Poverty rates were even higher among some older people from ethnic minority backgrounds, with more than one in three people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds aged 50 and over are living in relative poverty.

In light of the findings, the Centre for Ageing Better called for the establishment of a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing to ensure that policymakers are planning for the ageing population and considering the needs of the poorest and most disadvantaged older people.

Centre for Ageing Better chief executive, Dr Carole Easton OBE, said: “Not only is the cost-of-living crisis causing many current pensioners to cut back on food, heating, showers and going to the dentist; it is significantly limiting the ability of the next generations of pensioners from paying into their pensions and savings, potentially creating the conditions for greater pensioner poverty in the future.

“This is why we are calling for a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing to ensure that policymakers are planning for our ageing population and considering the needs of the poorest and most disadvantaged older people, both among the current retired generation and future generations of retirees.

"Poverty in retirement should not be considered an inevitability, we need to ensure the progress of the last half a century is not lost.”

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