The Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland, Siobhan Casey, has raised significant concerns about the Executive’s new Anti-Poverty Strategy, arguing it fails to adequately address the complex issue of poverty among older people. While welcoming the Executive's commitment to a cross-departmental approach, the Commissioner has stated that the strategy lacks depth, relies on an overly simplistic view of pensioner poverty, and offers insufficient new actions to provide meaningful support.
Key issues highlighted by the Commissioner:
That the new strategy's analysis of older people's poverty is based on a narrow set of data that suggests pensioners are at a lower risk of poverty than the general population. The Commissioner argues this is misleading because it overlooks significant differences within the older population.
The Commissioner wants the strategy to conduct a more thorough analysis of poverty among older adults. This should include using a wider range of data to identify and understand the specific risks faced by different groups, such as older pensioners, women, and private renters. The Commissioner's analysis reveals that women aged 80 to 84 have a relative poverty rate of 22%, highlighting a particularly high-risk group that needs targeted support.
The strategy needs to acknowledge that the older population is not a single, uniform group.
The Commissioner says the proposed actions such as maintaining existing advice services and lobbying Westminster to keep the state pension triple lock, are insufficient. The triple lock, while important, is seen as an unreliable protection against poverty for the most vulnerable.
The strategy lacks specific, measurable targets to track progress on older people's poverty, such as monitoring pensioners' income levels, increased uptake of benefits like Pension Credit, and the effectiveness of support services. This absence of a clear accountability framework means there is no way to evaluate the strategy's success or failure in helping older adults.
The Commissioner concluded that while the strategy is a good starting point, it does not provide the necessary roadmap to genuinely address older people's poverty. She said:
"While I applaud the intention behind this strategy, its contents do not provide reassurance that the Executive is taking this issue seriously when it comes to older people,"
The Commissioner continued: "The strategy provides an inaccurate and overly simplified picture of pensioner poverty and overlooks the most vulnerable in our community."
For further details, please refer to the full consultation response here
