Older people across the island of Ireland are increasingly balancing budgets and priorities between basic necessities, keeping their houses warm and paying bills finds new research published today (Thursday 19th January) by the Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland (CARDI).

The research, carried out by Professor Paddy Hillyard, Queen’s University Belfast and Dr Demi Patsios, Bristol University, uses data from before and during the recession to show that pensioners are being affected, particularly in the ability to keep their houses warm and cuts to discretionary spending on items such as annual holidays. It finds that while single pensioners in Northern Ireland remain worst off, living standards for couples in Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (ROI) have worsened due to the recession.

The researchers developed set of four comparable factors of affordability across the island of Ireland: warm house, utility arrears, hire purchase/loan arrears and annual holidays to create a harmonised All-Ireland Living Standards Index for older people.  Using this they found both single pensioners (NI & ROI) and pensioner couples (NI) are finding it more difficult to keep their homes warm. There has been an increase in the proportion of single pensioners in NI unable to keep their house warm, from 4% to 5.5%. In ROI, there has been a similar increase of 2.4% to 4.7% between 2007 and 2009. In NI, the numbers of pensioner couples struggling with heating their home has more than trebled from 2.2% to 6.9%.

The research also found that older people, North and South are reducing discretionary spending. Annual holidays appear to have been one of the first things which older people have cut back on. The proportion of pensioner couples who were unable to afford an annual holiday increased from 14.8% to 19.3% in NI and from 14.9% to 26.3% in ROI.

Full research report Inequalities in old age, Ireland, North and South

CARDI Research briefing

Summary of Research Findings

-23% of pensioner couples and 39% of single pensioners in NI have no
income on top of state benefits (Department for Social Development,
2010).

-In NI, the bottom fifth quintile of single pensioners receives just £93 per
week and pensioner couples receive £169 per week. The bottom fifth
quintile in ROI receives €209.41 on average (Department for Social
Development, 2010) (Central Statistics Office, 2011b).

-93% of people aged 65 and over in NI benefit from the state pension
compared to 91% in ROI. 45% benefit from other pension income,
compared to 32% in ROI. (Department for Social Development, 2010)
(Department of Social Protection, 2010).

-Single pensioners in NI have the lowest standard of living but this has
remained static. The living standards of single pensioners in ROI have
worsened (Hillyard & Patsios, 2011).

-Living standards for pensioner couples deteriorated from before to the
period during the recession in both NI and ROI (Hillyard & Patsios, 2011).

-Evidence suggests that as a result of the recession, older people are
increasingly making choices between basic necessities, keeping their
houses warm, going on holidays or paying bills (Hillyard & Patsios, 2011).