Charity: Pensioners face rationing

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A frugal way of life many pensioners thought they had left behind in the 1950s is once again a reality as rising taxes, fuel and food costs have squeezed their already tight budgets.

Research from the Royal British Legion found 384,000 pensioners living on less than £10,000 a year with a third of the ex-service community aged over 65 without adequate income to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Backed by charity Age Concern, it has launched a campaign calling on the Government to make changes to bring UK pensioners out of poverty.

These include improvements to council tax benefits and a doubling of the personal expense allowance for care home residents.

It also wants war pensioners to be exempt from means testing for disabled facility grants, which provide people with money to adapt their home.

The charity said the country owed the wartime generation a great debt, but many of these people had effectively returned to those austere days, living on extremely low fixed incomes.

Chris Simpkins, director general of the Royal British Legion, said: "We all thought rationing was history. But we were wrong.

"Even the Chancellor says we're facing the worst economic climate in 60 years and this has a crushing impact on older people. The Government must give them the help they deserve - making it easier for them to access their entitlements and giving them a level of income to ensure their basic needs are met."

A spokesman from the Department for Work and Pensions said: "From next month we're making it much simpler for older people to claim all the benefits they're entitled to over the phone, without having to sign or return any forms."