Columnist doesn’t understand pensioners’ needs

IT is difficult to tell reading Ivan Yates’s column (October 14) if he genuinely does not understand the needs of older people and what it is like to survive as a pensioner in 21st century Ireland, or if he is just trying to be controversial and to provoke people who are already living in fear of what might happen on budget day.

The headline was wrong to refer to essential supports for older people, such as free travel, a pension and the household benefits package as “freebies”, especially in a column which refers to senior bankers and is written by a former politician – two groups for whom the word “freebie” means something else entirely.

Throughout his column Ivan Yates shows a lack of understanding of older people and their needs. He fails to recognise that free travel (for many people who either never drove or can no longer drive), the gas/electricity unit allowance (for people who have fixed, low incomes and are at greatest risk of fuel poverty) or the state pension (for a group where one in 10 is at risk of poverty) are not freebies, but essential supports to remain alive, healthy and retain a modicum of dignity.