Shedding light on the not so golden years
A social portrait compiled by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) found the State pension and frugal living are the only things keeping elderly people from extreme hardship.
It said older people are more likely to fall into the lowest income brackets, but keep themselves afloat by managing their resources better.
Director of the ESRI’s social inclusion office, Gerry Mangan, said the difficulties facing older people demanded they and their families received as much support as possible.
“People who have been poor before the onset of old age are more likely to remain vulnerable.
“These realities underline the importance of quality service provision. Older people wish to remain living at home as long as possible, and a key aim is to provide them and their families with the necessary supports to enable them to do so,” Mr Mangan said.
Almost 60% of elderly people’s income comes from social assistance and only 20% is drawn from personal pensions.
The ESRI portrait also showed women are living longer than men.
These women are at greater risk of poverty based on income levels, but this does not translate to actual experiences based on check-lists for categorising depravation — because of lower housing costs, support from family members and the value of non-cash benefits such as free transport.
The report highlighted other hazards of elderly living, including the fact that almost 10% of people lacked central heating and more than half of those over 74 years of age suffered from chronic illnesses.
One-fifth of everybody over the age of 65 spends at least one night in hospital a year. Two-thirds do not have medical insurance.
St Vincent de Paul spokesman Stuart Kenny said the portrait provided an accurate picture.
“This confirms the experiences of people on the ground and we are glad to see that. It shows the difficulties of people, particularly in rural communities, where you have issues like isolation compounding the problem.”
Introducing the report Minister for Social and Family Affairs Seamus Brennan said that, as the population was growing older, it was important to make sure measures are put in place to keep them above the poverty-line.
“We owe older people a decent standard of living. They have laid the foundations of our economic success and prosperity through their sacrifices and hard work in difficult times.
“Our population is projected to age significantly in the coming decades... This process will have wide ranging implications, particularly for pensions, health and long term care,” Minister Brennan said.
The ESRI portrait of older people is the first in a series of documents commissioned by the Minister to describe the lives of vulnerable groups in society.
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