10,000 Oldham OAPs living in poverty

The Government should make the same commitment to eradicate pensioner poverty as it has to ending child poverty, a report by a powerful group of MPs claims.

The Work and Pensions committee said it was “unacceptable” two million pensioners remained in poverty and half of them are surviving on less than half the average income.

Latest figures show there are 4,166 pensioners living in poverty across the parliamentary constituency of Oldham East and Saddleworth, and a further 4,921 in Oldham West and Royton.

Committee chairman Terry Rooney said: “The Government has done a lot to help pensioners, but there is a lot still to do. The Government has committed to eradicating child poverty, now they need to commit to eradicating pensioner poverty.

“Many Government strategies have worked well in the past but are now showing diminishing returns. The Government needs to develop new and innovative programmes to lift pensioners out of poverty.”

The committee warned that the current economic downturn threatens to condemn older people to “a life of poverty in retirement” unless action is taken to avoid the experience of previous recessions, when many in their 50s lost their job and never worked again.

It also said the “discriminatory and unnecessary” compulsory retirement age, currently 65 but which is under Government review, should be scrapped.

Mr Rooney added: “The default retirement age is discriminatory, is bad for society, bad for older people, and bad for the economy. It has to go.”

The committee suggested a single phone line should be set up for pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit, to ensure that as many elderly people as possible get the cash to which they are entitled.

The Personal Expenses Allowance (PEA) for items like clothes, phone calls and toiletries paid to around 250,000 pensioners in residential care should increase from its £21.90 a week to £40 as the current level does not allow pensioners to “live in dignity” or keep in contact with their families.

Pensions Minister Angela Eagle said: “The Government has already shown its commitment by lifting more than 900,000 pensioners out of poverty since 1997, breaking the link between age and poverty. We recognise there is more to do, which is why even in these difficult economic times, we have targeted an extra £4 billion to helping our pensioners this year.”