SIR – The majority of pensioners will be among the worst affected by the austerity measures being planned in the UK.

Recent claims that pensioners had escaped the effects of the cuts to public spending and welfare is now being discredited, research shows that: 􀁥 Pensioners are up to £710 a year worse off than other households as a result of the rising cost of living and the increase in VAT.

􀁥 The Government intends to reduce the winter fuel allowance by £100 for the over-80s and £50 for the under-80s later this year, despite the fact that more than 25,000 pensioners died of cold-related illnesses last winter.

􀁥 Cuts to local authority funding are going to have a devastating effect on adult social services – sheltered housing schemes, home care, the closure of day centres, luncheon clubs etc.

􀁥 Cuts in grants to bus services mean fewer routes and cuts in services, leading to greater isolation of older people.

􀁥 Cuts in housing benefit will affect 25 per cent of pensioner households who live in rented property Pensioners are fed up of being branded by so-called experts as a drain on our society. They expediently forget that every year, pensioners are providing more than £30 billion worth of unpaid caring, voluntary work and child minding. Yet one in five pensioners still lives in poverty and rising costs of food and fuel, combined with record lows in savings returns, mean that pensioners continue to suffer a disproportionate increase in the cost of living.

FRED KALER
Chairman, Evesham and District Pensioners Association