uneviedematelot

Government  figures show that pensioner poverty is on the increase again. This at a time when around £4.7m of benefits and tax credits still lie unclaimed by the elderly and retired.
The credit crunch and raging oil inflation is making all of us feel the pinch that bit more and the Bank of England today told the credit industry that it sees no let-up. So imagine having worked all of your days to find yourself living without basic financial dignity.
Those generations who were lucky enough to retire with occupational pensions and lump sum payments are soon to disappear. Real poverty is set to spread further.
Unfortunately, older generations equate benefits with charity and are often too proud to claim them.
Age Concern believes the basic state retirement pension should be pegged at £124 per week. If the economy continues to nose-dive, even this figure may not be enough.
No easy solution seems to be at hand. However, there are a couple of
simple ideas that spring to mind:

• Encourage elderly family and friends to claim the benefits they are due. Chip away at their pride by referring to benefits as “entitlements” and encourage (perhaps accompany) them to local advice agencies, to contact Age Concern, call the Department for Work & Pensions, etc;
• Sign any petition, send letters to the newspapers, lobby MPs, talk about it when in supermarket queues (yes, that works!), etc, to get a better deal for pensioners; after all, if we are lucky, we may ourselves grow old enough to benefit from the better deal we should all campaign for right now