More than half of Londoners under the age of 65 doubt they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement, according to stark new polling from the older people’s charity Independent Age.
The poll, covering adults across Greater London, found 54 per cent of under-65s are not confident they will be able to fund a comfortable retirement. The charity says the findings should raise the alarm about the threat of poverty in later life — and show its services are needed now more than ever.
It is not only tomorrow’s pensioners who are worried. Independent Age also asked older Londoners about the pressures they face today, and found almost half — 46 per cent — of over-65s are anxious about affording basic essentials such as food, housing and utility bills, including energy and water, over the coming six months.
The figures land hard in a city where the cost of keeping a roof overhead eats into incomes more steeply than anywhere else in Britain. London’s renters and mortgage-holders routinely hand over a far larger share of their pay for housing than people elsewhere in the country, leaving less room to build the pension pots they will need decades from now. Even as house prices fall in parts of the capital, the month-to-month cost of living here remains punishing — and it is that day-to-day squeeze, the charity’s findings suggest, that is quietly eroding confidence in the future.
Behind the headline percentages sits a bleaker picture of later life already unfolding. Some 1.7 million older people across the UK currently live in poverty — one in seven — with around a million more hovering precariously just above the poverty line. An estimated 200,000 of them live in Greater London. And without change, the charity’s earlier research projects the UK total could reach 3.9 million by 2040 — almost one in four older people (23 per cent).
The poll’s release coincides with a relaunch for the charity, which is marking its 164th year with a new strategy and visual identity. Founded in 1863 to support people in poverty, Independent Age has focussed solely on older people since 1948. Its new strategy, running from 2027 to 2030, aims to accelerate work with other organisations to change what it calls the failing systems that leave older people in poverty before the end of this decade. The refreshed look carries a blunt tagline: “Let’s end financial hardship in later life”.
In practice, the charity says its work rests on two pillars: urgent help today, through its helpline and advice services, and longer-term change, using evidence from its frontline work to push for a fairer system. It also funds grassroots charities to reach people it cannot — including 15 organisations in Greater London helping an additional 14,000 older people facing financial hardship. Its mission statement puts it plainly: to stand with older people in financial hardship, offering urgent help today and shaping a fairer, more secure tomorrow.
Joanna Elson CBE, the charity’s chief executive, said: “These new findings are alarming. As our charity goes into its 164th year, our work to end financial hardship in later life is more important than ever. Today’s launch of our new strategy and visual identity will mean we can better reach and support both today and tomorrow’s pensioners facing life in poverty so that every older person in Greater London and across the UK can afford to live well.”
Derrick Evans MBE — better known as Mr Motivator — who spoke at the charity’s launch event, said: “I know first-hand how difficult the reality of financial insecurity can be. No one should have to choose between whether they heat their homes or eat a proper meal and the older people in our country should be able to afford to live securely and with dignity. That’s why I’m delighted to join Independent Age’s mission to end financial hardship in later life.”
The human cost behind the numbers was voiced by Thabani Sithole, 77, an Independent Age ambassador living in South London. Trying to get by on the State Pension alone, she described a cold house, extra layers of clothing, blankets — and a coffee out of reach. “I was trying to pay the bills with just my State Pension and didn’t know how to make ends meet,” she said. “The house was very cold – I was wearing extra clothes and covering myself in blankets. Even having a coffee out was beyond my reach.”
Her fortunes changed when a letter from the government confirmed she was entitled to an extra £800 a month. “I was so happy when I received the letter from the government saying I was entitled to an extra £800 per month. It was a big relief. Independent Age gave me my dignity back. Without them, I think I’d be homeless.”
Her story carries a practical message for Londoners: large sums of support go unclaimed every year, and a benefits check can be genuinely transformative. Older people worried about making ends meet — or adult children concerned about a parent — can seek free, independent advice on what they may be entitled to, from the charity’s helpline and advice services to local support networks. With household budgets under strain and council support schemes themselves under pressure — Croydon is currently consulting on cuts to its £39m council tax support scheme, which helps 19,000 residents — checking entitlements has rarely mattered more.
Housing, the single biggest cost for most Londoners, is part of the same picture. Southwark has just overhauled its social housing allocation system, while the debate continues over how the capital’s property wealth is taxed and spent — the Resolution Foundation has argued that London underpays £3.1bn a year in property tax.
For Independent Age, the poll is both a warning and a mandate. If more than half of working-age Londoners already fear for their retirement, and almost half of today’s pensioners worry about the next six months, the charity argues the system is failing at both ends of later life. Its answer — urgent help now, structural change before 2030 — is, it says, the only way to ensure every older person in the capital can afford to live well.
