Over 75s who served our country – how can we support them?
Many of our war heroes are living on state pensions and their biggest issues are mobility, isolation and the challenges of independent living. Access to public transport is harder, frailty makes busy places scary, yet they still want to remain independent. At the same time they are trying to make ends meet on a state pension.
The government has changed the way that pensions are paid, with modern card systems and better access, but some things just haven’t changed!
Take insurance for example
The Office for National Statistics figures say, for December 2017 to February 2018, that just under 12 million people over the age of 65 were in work – and now nearly 90% of veterans over 65 aren’t in work. At the same time, home ownership has been rising steadily among those aged 65 or more.
If you get £125.95 pw to live on and you’re one of the 78.6% over 65s, like our veterans, who own a house, then it’s really hard to insure your property and contents in an annual payment – though you really can’t afford the loss from a burst pipe and you may not be able to fully heat your home.
To help, most insurers offer monthly payments, but they usually cost more and have credit charges for monthly payments.
We think that there should be a better way to look after older people on state pensions and help them with their payments –
What could be done?
With the right leaders and proper planning, insurers and banks could:
- Provide an ultra-low-cost payments system to ensure that pensioners keep more of their money free from fees and charges,
- Absorb the cost and insurance risk of providing a monthly or even a weekly payment option,
- Let them put just enough money in a separate free ‘basic bank’ account that allows them to save enough to meet their bills and pays the insurer or utility company by Direct Debit.
To find out what we do to help our veterans and all people on benefits, keep an eye on our blog posts.