Shock figures show booming state handouts mean OAPs are now better off than ever
Younger generation hit hardest as wages struggle to bounce back from recession
PENSIONERS are now the least likely age group to be officially poor after a boom in incomes, a report reveals today.
The Government’s triple lock on pensions, which guarantees above-inflation handouts, has helped send them soaring above other groups.
More OAPs continuing to work instead of retiring also kept them above the poverty line — judged as 60 per cent of the average income or around £140 a week after housing costs.
Youngsters have been hit hardest as wages struggle to bounce back from the financial crisis.
The research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies found while the average income is now two per cent higher than before the 2008 crash, people aged 22 to 30 are still seven per cent down.
The report comes a day after another study found under-35s are on track to be the first generation in 100 years to earn less than their parents.
But Anna Dixon, from the Centre for Ageing Better, warned it is not all rosy for pensioners.
She said: “Those in later life who rent are at real risk of poverty when they stop earning — and there are 1.5million over-75s in poverty today.”
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The IFS report shows more people than ever before are in work. That helped to reduce the official poverty rate to 20.3 per cent — 700,000 fewer people than last year.
But it also found that middle-class families are increasingly being propped up by the State, with around 30 per cent of their income from benefits and tax credits.
Half of middle-income households now rent rather than own homes.
The IFS said: “In key respects middle-income families with children now more closely resemble poor families than in the past.”
Julia Unwin, of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which funded the study, said: “There are still a shamefully high number living in poverty in the UK today.”