Govt needs to do more to help pensioners

She had been to see the Strictly Come Dancing tour at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham with my two sisters, while I had made my first visit of the year to The Hawthorns in nearby West Bromwich to watch some mediocre championship football. I know who had more fun, and it wasn’t me.

Although it was good to see mum, now in her mid-80s, it was clear straightway that she’s struggling. She’s unsteady on her feet, having difficulties with her hearing, and has a painful thumb that she broke some time ago without seeking any medical help. Mum, like many of her generation, is stubborn as a mule and doesn’t want to be a burden on anyone. Sometimes, she’s her own worst enemy.

What I found most perturbing about the evening should resonate with many of you who have elderly parents. It wasn’t mum’s physical fragility that upset me the most, but the anxiety she now has about her finances and her ability to cope with rising bills.

Apart from a state pension and a small fixed monthly income from an annuity that my dad had in place when he died in 2017, mum has little else in her financial armoury besides some meagre cash savings.

Before I had even sat down, she was on to me. "I’m struggling with my energy bills, what can I do? And what’s this about banks and building societies charging savers to look after their money?"

Although I assured her that negative interest rates were never going to happen, I didn’t really have an answer to her question about rising energy bills.

Before Christmas, I had paid for a new boiler to be installed in her home – the previous one was becoming a health hazard. She was thrilled, but the increasing cost of her gas and electricity means she now thinks twice about heating her home. My brother, who lives nearby, says he sometimes visits only to see her sitting in the dark clutching a hot water bottle with a blanket wrapped round her.

Of course, there are hundreds of thousands of pensioners who are struggling financially far more than my mother. Before the dastardly and deadly pandemic struck the world, official figures indicated that more than 2m pensioners in the UK were living in poverty, with more than 1m in extreme fuel poverty. These numbers have increased over the past two years.

So far, the government has treated pensioners with contempt. It has suspended the triple lock guarantee on state pension payments, leaving pensioners to make do with an inadequate 3.1 per cent payment uplift this April. A guarantee that was part of the Conservative Party’s 2019 manifesto.

It has also allowed the BBC to scrap free TV licences for the over 75s – despite the manifesto stating the ‘value’ of free TV licences for the over 75’s – while overseeing a benefits system that takes advantage of the fact that many elderly people are too proud (or not financially sophisticated enough) to claim invaluable state payments such as the pension credit.

With inflation heading like a steam train towards 7 per cent, it’s understandable that the government is now coming under intense pressure to suspend the forthcoming hikes in national insurance contributions – increases that the Conservatives said they would never make in their manifesto  ("we will not raise the rate of income tax, VAT or national insurance").  The government would be wise to listen to those who believe many households simply cannot afford these tax rises while bills are soaring.

But it’s surely incumbent upon Boris Johnson’s administration to also do something meaningful for the elderly.

Baroness Ros Altmann has been brilliant in waving the flag for pensioners. At the start of the year she came out with a manifesto for the elderly that she urged the government to respond to.

It included the call for a national campaign by the government to increase take-up of pension credit – nearly 1m pensioners don’t claim what is rightly theirs.

Altmann said: "Calling the pension credit a ‘state pension top-up’ and helping pensioners understand that the money is their right – with a national advertising campaign on radio, television, mainstream press and social media – is urgently required to raise awareness." Bang on the nail.

Her manifesto also called for an increase in the benefits available to counter rising energy bills; an increase in both the cold weather payment (£25 a week) and warm home discounts (£140 a week) that have both not increased for more than 10 years. Again, spot on. The government should act now.

One final plea. If you have elderly parents, keep an eye on them, ask how they are getting on, and help them if help is what they need. 

Jeff Prestridge is personal finance and wealth editor of the Mail on Sunday