This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
PENSIONERS in Scotland are being forced to skip meals and cut back on heating as one in five struggle on an income of less than £15,000 a year.
The Older People’s Economic Wellbeing Index, commissioned by the Independent Age charity, found that 29 per cent of people in Scotland over the age of 66 had missed meals over the last year and half cut back on heating or utilities because of financial difficulties.
The figure climbs to 32 per cent for those with a health condition, 24 per cent of whom were unaware that supports such as Pension Age Disability Payments existed.
The charity found that 19 per cent survive on less than £15,000 a year, with 83 per cent them forced to cut back on heating, and that one in seven of Scotland’s pensioners — 156,000 — now live in poverty, a 25 per cent increase over the last decade.
Independent Age’s Debbie Horne said: “In a fair and just society, no-one should be living their later years cutting back on food or not using the heating.
“We’re calling on the Scottish government to develop a pensioner poverty strategy to address the misery felt by a rising number of older Scots on a low income.
“This should set out actions to boost incomes and social security take-up and improve housing affordability and energy efficiency.”
Eileen Cawley of the Scottish Pensioners Forum said the report showed the “devastating impact that years of low-paid work and continued cuts to welfare rights have had on the wellbeing of older people.”
She added: “That there are around 150,000 older people in Scotland living in persistent poverty is appalling.
“This is equivalent in numbers to the total population of one of our major cities, Dundee. It’s just not good enough.
“What we need is for charities and campaigning groups to work together to urgently strengthen engagement with policymakers and to make our voices heard.
“There are too many lives depending on us not to.”
A Westminster government spokesperson insisted that ministers were “committed to supporting pensioners.”
But SNP Equalities Minister Kaukab Stewart said they had been “let down by the decisions of the UK government.”
She added: “No-one should ever have to choose between heating and eating. That is why the Scottish government is providing universal support to all pensioner households from next winter.”
