The highest 20% finest paid pensioners noticed their incomes rise by 9% yearly – equal to £2,496 yearly – over the last decade as much as 2022/23, in keeping with new evaluation.
Nevertheless, whereas the perfect paid pensioners did properly, single pensioners on the backside of the pile noticed only a 2% annual enhance – equal to solely £1 per week for some.
Unbiased consultancy Broadstone says its evaluation of the DWP’s Pensioner Revenue Sequence discovered a “rising revenue hole” between the poorest and richest pensioners.
The analysis revealed that single pensioner incomes within the backside 20% grew by solely 2% earlier than housing prices between 2010/11-2011/12 and 2020/21-2022/23, a median enhance of simply £208 a yr.
In marked distinction, these within the high 20% loved annual revenue progress over the identical interval of 9%, equal to £2,496 yearly – a further £2,288 greater than these with the bottom incomes.
Broadstone mentioned the distinction was much more marked after housing prices, with single pensioners within the backside revenue quintile seeing their revenue enhance by simply £1 per week over the previous decade. These within the high quintile recorded revenue progress of £55 per week, or £2,860 a yr.
A single pensioner within the backside 20% noticed 88% of their gross revenue earlier than housing prices offered by the State Pension and advantages – a slight enhance from 87% a decade earlier. Broadstone says this implies they entered retirement with little in the way in which of pensions or different financial savings.
Damon Hopkins, head of DC Office Financial savings at Broadstone, mentioned: “These figures present that the hole between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ in retirement has widened sharply.
“Single pensioners already face vital revenue pressures, particularly as they have to pay payments by way of a single revenue, however they’ve barely seen any enhance of their revenue over the previous 10 years.”
