Various aspects of State pensions and benefits figure large in today’s headlines.
A new piece of research shows that Britain’s State pension is officially the “stingiest” amongst G7 nations. British pensioners receive only 22 per cent of their pre-retirement income on average from the State Pension, not the 76 per cent enjoyed by Italian pensioners or up to 58 per cent by their French counterparts.
Comparisons are inevitably odious as there is a wide variance in how retirement incomes are funded, but it adds a perspective to the current argument raging about the affordability of the State Pension.
On which topic, Reform’s deputy leader has put his party’s collective head above the parapet and declared the “triple lock” unsustainable.
Meanwhile, new figures show which parts of the country are missing out most on the Pension Credit due to them. This suggests that initiatives to encourage claims are more strongly supported in some localities than other.
This might sound naïve, but it also begs the question: if we know where the claimants should be, why is it so hard to identify and approach them individually?
There are a number of encouraging stories around dementia today. We look at the project in Bristol to see whether blood checks can lead to quicker diagnoses. A new piece of research suggests that even a modest amount of daily walking can stall its progress. And the Alzheimer’s Society shares its advice on preventing it from developing in the first place.
New research has made the link between the arts and wellbeing amongst older adults, while over in Wales the plight of the nation’s carers comes under the spotlight.
But we end on a cheerier note to celebrate the half-way mark to the weekend: residents at Age Action Alliance member’s St Monica Trust are raising their glasses to a new project they have been dabbling in over recent months: growing hops for their own brew of beer… just one of many ground-breaking initiatives that the Trust is pioneering.
