2.2 million pensioners currently live in poverty in the UK and, unless the system changes, this figure won’t improve.

Poverty can affect every aspect of someone’s life, whether it means being unable to afford a healthy diet, lacking the money to see friends and family regularly or being unable to keep one’s home in decent repair.

The research found that to tackle pensioner poverty the Government should take the following steps.

• Invest in a system to pay means-tested benefits to pensioners automatically. This could take 500,000 pensioners out of poverty immediately in England alone. 
• Commit to linking the Basic State Pension to average earnings straight away. This would take an extra 100,000 pensioners out of poverty now, rather than waiting until 2012.
• Provide justice to women pensioners by paying the Basic State Pension universally. This would help nearly four million older women in England who are not entitled to a full pension because they have been penalised for time spent caring for children or in low-paid part-time jobs.

What you can do

Read the report, ‘Meeting the challenge: defeating pensioner poverty’, which can be downloaded from the right hand side of this page.

Pensioner poverty can be overcome if the Government takes action. Email your MP to highlight this important issue.

Email your MP now