Two-thirds of single pensioners have to get by on less than £200 a week, finds official report
More than 60 per cent of single pensioners have to survive on less than £200 a week, official figures revealed yesterday.
The numbers highlight the daily battle elderly people face trying to meet soaring bills on meagre incomes.
Nearly two-thirds of single pensioners are having to get by on incomes of less than £10,000 a year, the figures showed.
45 per cent of pensioner couples received less than £15,000, according to the Office for National Statistics
Pensions are providing people with only modest incomes, with 61 per cent of single pensioners receiving less than £10,000 a year from them during 2006/200.
45 per cent of pensioner couples received less than £15,000, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
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 scrapping by on less than £6,000.
But the re-stated figures increase the level of income people received from private pensions during the year by around four times.
They show that instead of receiving an average of just £2,115 from private pensions during the year, couples actually got £9,607.
Estimates for private pension income for single men was revised up from £1,553 to £6,272, while for single women it increased from an average of £1,238 to £5,137.
The income pensioners received from state benefits and the state pension were also raised slightly.
The 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 £11,059 for pensioner couples, £6,812 for single men and £5,519 for single women.
But 64 per cent of single women who received a private pension got less than £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 £10,191 from the state in 2006/2007, while single men got £6,911 and single women received an average of £6,700.
