Living on a low income in later life
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.