Retirement should be a time when people can enjoy life, stay connected and feel secure. But for too many pensioners, rising living costs mean that even covering the essentials can be a struggle.
CSPA believes everyone should have enough income to live with dignity in retirement. That means more than simply getting by. It means being able to afford the basics, maintain good health and take part in everyday life.
What should a minimum income cover?
A Minimum Income Guarantee for older people should reflect the real cost of living. It should cover essentials such as housing, energy and water, groceries, personal care, transport, clothing and communications, while leaving room for some leisure and social activities.
It should help people maintain a dignified, active and healthy standard of living, whatever their circumstances.
There are already useful benchmarks to help establish what this might look like, including Pensions UK’s Retirement Living Standards and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Minimum Income Standards. These provide a basis for understanding what people need to live at different levels.
But the cost of living changes, as do people’s needs and expectations. A Minimum Income Guarantee should therefore be reviewed every year, so it continues to reflect the costs and realities of everyday life.
Helping people plan for retirement
Knowing how much money you might need in retirement can be difficult, particularly when costs and circumstances can change over time.
CSPA’s Budget for Later Life highlights figures suggesting that 74% of people have made little or no retirement planning, while 82% don’t know how much income they’ll need. These figures underline the importance of making retirement planning information accessible and helping people understand what their future income might need to cover.
Maintaining tax relief on pension contributions is also important. It can encourage people to save for retirement and help them build financial security for the future.
Making sure support reaches those who need it
A Minimum Income Guarantee needs to be more than an ambition. The Government should act on recommendations from the Work and Pensions Committee’s report on pensioner poverty, ensuring the State Pension and benefits are adjusted to help meet the guarantee.
Support must reach pensioners in all circumstances, recognising that people’s needs and costs can differ considerably.
This matters not just to people who are already retired, but to those approaching retirement too. CSPA’s Budget for Later Life highlights the scale of the challenge facing future pensioners, including the number of working-age people who have little or no pension provision or savings.
Our call for change
As part of Later Life Ambitions, we are calling for a Minimum Income Guarantee for older people that reflects the real cost of living, is reviewed annually and helps everyone enjoy a secure and dignified retirement.
A decent retirement should be about more than getting by. Everyone deserves the chance to live well, stay connected and enjoy later life with confidence.
Later Life Ambitions
Later Life Ambitions brings together the collective voices of over a quarter of a million pensioners through the National Federation of Occupational Pensioners, the Civil Service Pensioners’ Alliance, and the National Association of Retired Police Officers Association.
We aim to encourage today’s decision makers to confront the challenges of tomorrow.
What we're calling for:
This Budget presents our plan for a fairer, more sustainable deal for older people. we urge you to stand with us and add your voice to our calls for a fair deal for living well in later life.
- Protecting the State Pension
- Reducing the tax on pensions
- Tackling the gender pension gap
- Supporting older people in the workplace
- A minimum income guarantee
- Widening access to public transport
- Making housing safe, secure, accessible and adaptable
- Supporting health and social care
