London’s elderly ‘living in poverty’

More than one-third of the capital’s pensioners are living in
poverty, according to figures released by London Mayor Ken
Livingstone last week.

He told the first meeting of the capital’s Older People’s Assembly
that pensioner poverty shames society. “It exists in inner London
on a scale that has never been previously recognised,” he
said.

The conference also heard from the chief executive of one of the
country’s biggest providers of housing for older people.

John Belcher, chief executive of Anchor Trust, urged older people
to unite and assert their collective political power in order to
gain more control over their lives.

Belcher said: “There are still too many care homes with
paternalistic regimes and depressing environments.”

Examples of new services that were built around the needs of the
older person could be found, but there was still a long way to go,
he said.