One in six pensioners are now living in poverty, new report finds

Recent rise in pensioner poverty has been primarily driven by a fall in home ownership

Poverty rates among pensioners who own their own home are low and have changed very little over the last decade (PA)

One in six pensioners are now living in poverty, according to a new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) charity.

Primarily driven by a fall in home ownership, increased cost of renting and a benefits freeze, it says that 36 per cent of pensioners living in privately rented accommodation were struggling with poverty – a rise of a third over the last 10 years.

The charity is now calling on the government to ensure housing benefit is uprated with inflation.

It has also called for the government to invest in more low cost rental homes.

“There are underlying trends in housing and pension savings that suggest it may rise again in the future unless action is taken,” the JRF’s report said.

“Many of the current generation of pensioners have benefited from a golden age – rising home ownership, well-paid work and healthy pensions, alongside stable, affordable tenancies in social rented homes,” said the charity’s chief executive Campbell Robb. “However, this report clearly shows that for people approaching retirement and people toiling in middle age to build a decent and secure life, their prospects look less certain thanks to broken housing and labour markets, which are locking more working families into poverty.”

The figures are rising after a significant improvement compared to two decades ago when nearly one in three pensioners lived in poverty.

Poverty rates among pensioners who own their home are low and have changed very little over the last decade.

Of the 330,000 additional pensioners in poverty since 2012/13, 60,000 are private renters and 130,000 are social renters.