State pension recipients €700 worse off today than in 2009, says charity Alone

Pensioners are facing into another winter of discontent according to the charity Alone, which claimed anyone on a state pension is €700 worse off now than in 2009.

Its CEO, Sean Moynihan, said measures included in Budget 2016, such as the increase in the pension and the partial reinstatement of the Christmas bonus still did not compensate for the string of cuts implemented in previous budgets.

He said that while many people were understandably “protected” in the budget — particularly families — others, such as the elderly, were not.

He said one in five elderly people in Ireland are on the deprivation index and many are ensnared in the housing crisis. Half of all calls to Alone relate to housing issues.

“If you are not linked to a job, if you are in poor health, if you are on the basic pension, you are in a situation where you are struggling,” he said.

“We need to be planning for older people now.”

Mr Moynihan said 160,000 people have turned 65 since the recessionary 2009 budget and since then the telephone allowance has been scrapped, the fuel allowance season cut by six weeks and the household benefits package reduced to a single rate.

“In addition to these cuts, many older people are being crippled by the prescription charge, a direct tax on our sick, which the Government has made no move to eradicate,” he said.

“A person living on the state pension is now down €700 since 2008 in allowance and benefits this is without taking the rising costs of living and increases in charges and taxes into account.”