Poverty and older Londoners

Poverty amongst people over the age of 50 is higher in London than any other part of England. For the past two years Age UK London has launched our reports on poverty amongst older Londoners. 

The latest figures highlight that:

• Almost a quarter, (24%) of over 50s currently live in poverty, compared to 19% in the rest of England
• If poverty rates were the same as the rest of England, some 125,000 fewer older Londoners would be in poverty
• 46% of older Londoners living in social housing are in poverty.

In our most recent report we outlined a series of recommedations both for London's local authorities and for the Mayor of London. They included: 

For local authorities:

• Local authorities should review the effectiveness of current approaches to
  increase uptake levels of Pension Credit in their borough. A review should also consider any potential to adopt new approaches based on emerging  practice in other local authority areas. Independent Age’s 2023 guide ‘Pension Credit uptake: Good practice examples and principles toolkit, and other guidance’ offers a useful reference for this work.
• Where the local authority has a strategy aimed at reducing poverty, we call on them to audit the specific actions listed for their impact on residents over the age of 50.
• Take steps to ensure that external organisations and communities working with or led by older residents are included in the design of interventions and in local anti-poverty partnerships. This should include participation in anti-poverty forums, and relevant steering groups.
• Take steps to enable older residents with lived experience of poverty to fully
  participate in the development, implementation and ongoing review of any
  strategy or action plan aimed at reducing poverty.
• In order to reduce fuel poverty and its impacts, local authorities should take
  steps to improve the energy efficiency of social housing stock.

For the Mayor of London:

• We welcome the targeted campaigns the Mayor has run to boost the uptake of Pension Credit amongst older Londoners. We call on the Mayor to continue these campaigns, whilst taking steps to improve their effectiveness based on learning.
• Explore how they can support councils to work with advice services in order to increase Pension Credit uptake rates.
• Call on the Government to simplify the application process for Pension Credit.
• Take steps to ensure promotion of both Energy Advice London services and
  the Warmer Homes Advice Service are reaching older Londoners most likely to be unaware of these services, such as those without access to the internet

Poverty Campaign Advisory Board

Our Poverty Campaign Advisory Board was formed this year and met for the first time in November 2023. The advisory board consists of experts in the issue from Independent Age, Open Door and HEAR. 

Our Funder

Our thanks to our funder Propel. It would not be possible to campaign on behalf of older Londoners living in poverty without their support.