WHAT ABOUT US?

IF YOU live outside South Devon, England, you probably won't have seen my Torbay Times Pensioners Platform column for October~November 2015, so here it is....

WHILE Prime Minister Cameron throws £100million more at the European refugee crisis, plus a staggering £25million for a new prison in Jamaica, here at home, the plight of millions of UK pensioners is conveniently overlooked. Even the BBC and the news media in general seem to be more pre-occupied, these days, with Europe’s porous borders and the welfare of the thousands of migrants heading our way, than with the difficulties being faced on a daily basis by many British seniors in our own back yard.

Talking of which: tucked away on an inside page of the Daily Mail on Thursday September 10, I spotted a small item headlined “The Pensioners Who Can’t Pay for Essentials”. I hope the Prime Minister and other politicians of all persuasions saw it, because those few column inches made for alarming reading.

According to a recent study carried-out by the insurance giant LV, tight household budgeting has resulted in millions of UK pensioners deciding to “go without”. In fact, nearly five million British retirees are unable to afford to buy items they need, including essentials. The LV report also revealed that one in twenty pensioners can’t even afford to purchase Christmas and birthday gifts for their loved ones. In addition, the study found that forty-two percent of home-owners aged 65 or over admitted “going without” to make ends meet.

Even more worryingly, one third of UK pensioners are forced to survive on an income of less than the minimum wage and, of those, one in twenty-five say they struggle to pay their all-important utility bills. Most telling of all is the revelation in the report that pensioners here in the South West are more likely to “go without” than virtually anywhere else in Britain.

Critics of the LV study might point to the massive eighty-three per cent of Over-65s who own their own properties, and suggest equity release as an option. But, it’s not as easy as that. In fact, hardly a week goes by without reports of vulnerable UK pensioners being persuaded to sell their property to unscrupulous equity release firms, only to find they’ve signed-up to much less than they expected or, worse still, a smaller lump sum and a commitment to move-out within a year. On the face of it, the whole equity release minefield looks to be awash with crooks. However, there are more honest voices to be heard.

For example, John Perks (pictured above), the managing director of Retirement Solutions at LV says, “It’s deeply concerning that so many older people are struggling in retirement, often going without life’s essentials but it doesn’t have to be this way. There are many options available and using untapped housing wealth to supplement other incomes is a route worth considering, as it allows you to free up capital and afford the retirement you want.

“It is unfortunate that misconceptions about the way retirees can use their property to plug an income shortfall persist as, in the right circumstances, equity release can be used to help afford retirees a better, more comfortable standard of living. We at LV would always recommend that someone seeks advice from a specialist before taking out equity release.”

 

That’s all very well, but pensioner poverty exists today in the UK and the powers that be don’t seem to care. Instead, as we approach winter 2015-16, politicians continue to wring their hands over issues beyond our shores, while the media fills our eyes with images of well-clothed, well-fed, energetic and sometimes riotous groups of men, women and children trekking towards what they perceive to be EUtopia (my deliberate spelling error).

Have you noticed, by the way, how the TV cameras tend to seek-out the little ones to tug at our heart and purse strings? We are told all these people are fleeing war-torn Syria, Libya and other areas of Africa and the Middle East. But most of them don’t appear to be suffering from the trauma of war. In fact, many of them have smiles on their faces, not of relief, but of expectation and determination.

That, in turn, poses two questions: just how many of these people are actually war-ravaged, battle-scarred victims? And how many of them are economic migrants hell-bent on hand-outs and a cushy life on benefits in Britain?

Some reading this article may accuse me of racism but, frankly, I don’t care. After all, it’s only a word that has lost its potency through over-use. My response to such accusations is this: is it right that even one UK pensioner (or younger person for that matter) should go hungry or cold – or both – or die of hypothermia or malnutrition here in Britain, while those who haven’t contributed a penny towards our Welfare State receive £millions in hand-outs? Surely humanitarianism should begin here at home, caring for our own, first and foremost?