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Life is Struggle for People on Pension of Just Pounds 10,000

Posted on: Sunday, 20 July 2008, 00:00 CDT

Nearly two-thirds of single pensioners are having to struggle on incomes of less than Pounds 10,000 a year, official figures have revealed.

Pensions are providing people with only modest incomes, with 61 per cent of single pensioners receiving less than Pounds 10,000 a year from them during 2006/2007, while 45 per cent of pensioner couples got less than Pounds 15,000, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The ONS also re-issued figures on pension income for the previous year after withdrawing them when a "significant error" was uncovered.

The previous findings, which were branded a "national disgrace" by pensioner groups, showed that half of all single pensioners were scraping by on less than Pounds 6,000.

But the re-stated figures increase the level of income people received from private pensions during the year by about four times.

They show that instead of receiving an average of just Pounds 2,115 from private pensions during the year, couples actually got Pounds 9,607.

Estimates for private pension income for single men was revised up from Pounds 1,553 to Pounds 6,272, while for single women it increased from an average of Pounds 1,238 to Pounds 5,137.

The income pensioners received from state benefits and the state pension were also raised slightly.

The latest figures for 2006/2007 showed that two-thirds of pensioner households had a private pension, such as an occupational one, generating an average income of Pounds 11,059 for pensioner couples, Pounds 6,812 for single men and Pounds 5,519 for single women.

But 64 per cent of single women who received a private pension got less than Pounds 5,000 from it during the year, as did 58 per cent of single men and 39 per cent of couples.

The majority of people had their income topped up by state benefits, such as the state pension and other related benefits.

Pensioner couples received an average of Pounds 10,191 from the state in 2006/2007, while single men got Pounds 6,911 and single women received an average of Pounds 6,700.

(c) 2008 Yorkshire Post. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Source: Yorkshire Post

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