Quality of life for elderly 'worse'

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One in four older people say they have become so worried about their future that it is affecting their physical health, the study for the charity Help the Aged showed.

The poll by ICM also found that 23% of people aged 65 and over avoid heating their bedroom, bathroom or living room because they are worried about the cost.

One tenth (10%) of people of that age say they are often or always lonely, while 12% are not happy with their quality of life. And more than half (53%) agree that age discrimination is part of older people's everyday lives, with 29% saying health professionals tend to treat older people as a nuisance.

The survey forms part of the charity's analysis of the state of older people, called Spotlight.

Other figures highlighted by the charity include the proportion of older people in England who say they are not always treated with dignity in hospital has worsened from 21% to 22% while the provision of low level social care - two hours or less at home a week - has dropped, with 11% fewer households receiving care in England than in the previous year.

The charity also says that in the past 12 months an estimated 200,000 extra pensioner households have been plunged into fuel poverty.

The same number of older people are living in poverty in 2008 as in the previous year, with 21% of pensioners surviving below the poverty line, it says.

Paul Cann, the charity's director of policy and external relations, said: "It's appalling that we live in a society where older people feel sick with worry about the future.

"The Government must ease their concerns by banning the ageism that continually sinks its poison right into the heart of our society."