Summary

What the indicators show: older people

The proportion of pensioners who are in low-income households has halved over the last decade, with smaller falls for pensioner couples.
Pensioners are now less likely to be living in low-income households than non-pensioners.
Single female pensioners and older pensioner couples are the pensioners most likely to be in low income.
Around half of low-income pensioners are in couples and the other half are single pensioners.
Unlike working-age adults, very few low-income pensioners have a very low income.
The proportion of pensioners on low income is highest in London and the East Midlands.
After deducting housing costs, pensioners are much less likely to be in low income than non-pensioners. Before deducting housing costs, however, pensioners are much more likely to be in low income than non-pensioners.

1.2 million pensioners have no income other than the state retirement pension and state benefits.
More than half of employees on below-average incomes are not contributing to a non-state pension (although some may belong to a non-contributory pension scheme).
The proportion of employees not contributing to a non-state pension is around a third for all ages from 30 to 60.

Around two-fifths of pensioner households entitled to Council Tax Benefit and Pension Credit are not claiming them. These are much higher proportions than a decade ago.
Of the estimated £4 billion of unclaimed income-related benefits to which pensioners were entitled in 2006/07, Pensioner Credit accounted for half while Council Tax Benefit accounted for a third.
Half of the owner occupiers entitled to Pension Credit are not claiming it, a much higher proportion than for those in other tenures.
The proportion of pensioner households entitled to, but not claiming, Pension Credit is somewhat higher for pensioner couples than for single pensioners.

Each year around 20,000 more people aged 65 or over die in winter months than in other months.
The proportion of excess winter deaths amongst those aged 65 and over is similar in all regions.

A third of adults aged 65-74, and half of adults aged 75 and over, report a limiting longstanding sickness or disability. Both proportions are similar to a decade ago.
For those aged 65-74, the proportion with a limiting longstanding illness or disability increases as income decreases. The differences by income are less for those aged 75 and over.
Those aged 65 and over who had routine or manual jobs are somewhat more likely to suffer a long-standing illness or disability than those with non-manual work histories.
The proportion of adults aged 65 to 74 who have a limiting long-standing illness is higher in Wales, the North of England, Northern Ireland and Scotland than elsewhere.

The proportion of older people receiving home care has almost halved since 1994 as available resources are increasingly focussed on those deemed most in need.
Fewer older people are helped to live at home in the South (outside London) than elsewhere in England.
On average, English county councils support fewer older people to live independently at home than urban authorities.

Among those aged 60 or over, around a quarter of women feel very unsafe out at night, four times the proportion for men.
Among women aged 60 and over, those from lower income households are one and a half times as likely to feel very unsafe out at night as those from higher income households.

While four fifths of the rural population have a shop in their parish, half of the people in parishes of less than 1,000 people do not.
More than half of single pensioners in rural areas do not have a car compared to one in seven pensioner couples.