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Age Concern's Director General‚ Gordon Lishman‚ said: 
"Despite the fall announced today‚ inflation rates remain high and are higher still for many of the poorest and oldest pensioners.¹ Recent steep hikes in energy costs have hit the poorest pensioners particularly hard‚ and declining wholesale prices have yet to be passed on to the consumer. Our research shows that over half of pensioners are cutting back on essentials‚ and one in ten of the poorest have gone into debt as a result of increased living costs.

“Measures to tackle the economic crisis announced in the Government’s Pre-Budget Report must help pensioners who are struggling to pay their bills. It is only fair that Pension Credit should be increased by the real rate of inflation for low-income pensioners. We also want an emergency payment of £100 for those pensioners entitled to benefits and a further increase of £50 to the Winter Fuel Payment to help all pensioners afford their bills."

- ENDS -

Notes to Editors

1. Research carried out independently by IFS‚ and supported by Age Concern‚ showed average pensioner inflation reached 7.4% in August 2008‚ significantly higher than the 5.4% rate for non-pensioners and the highest rate for pensioners since 1991. At 9% the inflation rate was even higher for the oldest and poorest pensioner households.

• Any older person who is finding it hard to make ends meet can contact Age Concern’s freephone Information line on 0800 00 99 66 or visit http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/ for free factsheets including ‘More Money in Your Pocket’ and ‘A brief guide to Benefits’‚ or their local Age Concern may be able to help.

FACTFILE:

• There are currently 2.1million pensioners living in poverty (after housing costs) – this equates to 2.5million pensioners before housing costs are taken into account.
• Age Concern research shows two-thirds (66%) of pensioners are cutting back on the amount of gas and electricity they are using‚ over half (52%) are buying less or poorer quality food‚ and 49% plan to cut back on their heating this winter.
• One in 10 low income pensioners have built up debt due to the increased cost of living.
• The number of pensioner households in fuel poverty has more than doubled since 2004. Age Concern estimates there are now around 2.75 million older households – more than one in three - in fuel poverty in the UK.
• When it was first introduced the £200 Winter Fuel Payment covered over a third of the average fuel bill – it now covers less than a fifth.
• Despite increased living costs‚ up to £5 billion in benefits is going unclaimed by some of the poorest pensioners‚ because they don’t know that they are entitled‚ are worried about the complexity of the process or are embarrassed about claiming.

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