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Living on a Low Income in Later Life
Key findings
Despite a welcome reduction in the number of
people in later life living in poverty, it remains an
issue for a significant minority of older people.
Age UK commissioned this qualitative research
conducted by the Centre for Research in Social
Policy at Loughborough University to explore and
understand the experiences of people aged 65
and over living on low incomes, in order to raise
awareness about the reality of managing in later
life with restricted means. The study found that:
• People in this study were finding life tough
living on a low income but by and large
believed they were getting by.
• Participants responded differently to living
on a low income depending on whether they
had experienced it throughout their lives. Those who had more affluent pasts sometimes
found it harder to adjust compared to those
who were familiar with managing in constrained circumstances and hardship.
• People generally perceived that getting into
debt was the upshot of not being able to
cope with living on a low income. Most were strongly averse to debt and in order to stay
debt-free they believed that you had to live
within your means. Those few who had
some form of debt demonstrated the difficulty
of getting back on track when on a fixed
low income.
• Participants worked incredibly hard to manage
financially. They kept a close eye on their
budget and managed their resources very
carefully. This involved enormous effort,
discipline and resourcefulness. However, the
constant need for restraint and 'existing' with little prospect of a situation improvement
could be emotionally draining.
• Participants took pains to ensure that they
met their household bills. However, they had
to make sacrifices to do so. They went without
holidays, stopped going out, did not replace
household goods, and some took drastic action
to reduce their heating and energy costs.
• The combination of having poor health and
mobility, living in a rural area in old housing
with no or limited public or transport and
with few social networks made it much harder
to manage financially as well as practically.
Having even small amounts of savings could
also make a real difference to being able
to deal with emergency expenditure or in
meeting more regular payments.
• People were very concerned about the
current economic climate. They were anxious
about being able to continue to manage
on their incomes and were worried about
the future. They were particularly concerned
about rising prices, and losing benefits such
as free bus travel that helped to stretch
their limited means further. They were also
apprehensive about the removal of services
that were currently available and enhanced
their quality of life.
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