Quality of Life

• In the UK, 11 per cent of older people describe their quality of life as very poor, quite poor or neither good nor poor.
• 24 per cent of older people in the UK reported that their quality of life had got worse over the last year, whereas nine per cent said it had improved. 

• 2.5 million pensioners (23 per cent) live below the poverty line (£151 for single pensioners and £226 for a couple).
• £3½ to £5 billion of means-tested benefits that should rightfully go to older people in Great Britain  went unclaimed in 2006-07.
• 33 to 41 per cent of older people in Great Britain  eligible for pension credit are not taking up their entitlement.
• For single pensioners mainly reliant on state pension, the average disposable weekly income is £144.
• 15 per cent of pensioners are in persistent poverty (below the poverty line for at least three out of the last four years in Great Britain          

• As a result of the price rises announced in Summer 2008, Help the Aged estimate that 5 million households in the UK are in fuel poverty.
• Help the Aged estimate that one in three pensioner households in the UK is currently in fuel poverty.
• In March 2008, energy prices were 50 per cent above their 2003 levels in real terms.
• During the summer of 2008, prices rose by an average of around 30 per cent for gas and 14 per cent for electricity.
• 36 per cent of people 60 or over in GB sometimes stay or live in just one heated room of their home to save money.