Rising costs for older people

Older & Bolder says that there is no justification for further cutting State Pension and income supports in December’s Budget. Recent research shows that any change to State Pension or other supports will have significant impact on older people’s lives.

We are concerned that the rising costs revealed in recent inflation figures are making life difficult for older people most of whom are relying on fixed incomes.  In this context there is no justification for further cuts to the State Pension in December’s Budget. 

The figures released by the Central Statistics Office on Thursday 11th November show that there were significant price rises in areas that really matter to older people:
 
• For example Dwelling Insurance and Health Insurance rose by 14.5% and 9% in the last 12 months respectively;
• Increases in Telephone and Communications (3.1%), Transport Services (4.7%), Petrol (13.7%) and Diesel (18.6%) challenge older people’s ability to remain independent and to continue to contribute to their families and communities;
• The cost of heating the home increased significantly this year too, with the price of electricity, gas and other fuels increasing by 7.1%;
• These latest figures also record the impact of the prescription levy for medical card holders; a 50c charge on each item of prescribed drugs bought. This measure has increased the cost of prescribed drugs by 6.5% in the month of October.

The combined effect of these price increases and the 2% cut to the State Pension, through the elimination of the Christmas Bonus, is that older people – who were already very stretched from a financial point of view and are on fixed incomes – are now not in a position to take any more cuts to their pensions and income supports.