Poverty among the elderly lower in new EU Member States
A new report from the European Centre has shown that elderly people (aged 65+) in the EU 25 Member States face a significant threat of financial difficulties. However, the study shows that elderly people living in the new Member States have half the poverty risk of those in the former EU15 nations. According to the author, Asghar Zaidi, 'about 13 million elderly people are at risk of poverty in 25 EU Member States, amounting to as many as one in six of all 74 million elderly people living in the EU'. After juggling the figures to ensure international comparability, the report was able to give the relative risk of poverty in each country. This is one area where the new Member States are already ahead of the former EU15. The new Member States have half the poverty risk for elderly people. 'The new Member States are largely countries with the lowest risk of elderly poverty - the average poverty risk for the elderly in EU15 (19 per cent) is more than twice as high as that observed for the elderly of the new Member States (9 per cent),' reads the report. Cyprus, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Greece and the UK were found to be the countries with the highest poverty risk for elderly people. Cyprus had the highest poverty risk at 52 per cent, meaning that out of 100 elderly people, 52 will go on to live in poverty. At the other end of the spectrum, in the Czech Republic, only four per cent of the elderly population risk poverty. In comparison to the 16-64 age group, elderly people are between 1.5 and two times as likely to be poor. For women the picture is bleaker. 'On average, the at-risk-of-poverty rate for male elderly in the NMS10 (new Member States) is just 6 per cent compared to 10 per cent for females in the new Member States, 16 per cent for male elderly in EU15 and 21 per cent for female elderly in EU15,' reads the report. Women aged 75 and over have the highest risk of poverty. Balancing the wide discrepancies between EU Member States will take some time. Part of the solution could be to balance the pensions systems across Member States. This is a complicated task, and has supporters as well as critics. 'One significant policy development is that many countries have recently embarked on a further strengthening of their targeted minimum pension and social assistance schemes - this will have a positive effect on the reduction of poverty amongst the elderly, although the stigma associated with the mean-tested benefits often induce non-take-up of such benefits,' reads the report. The author also notes that many countries are aware that an ageing population will have an increasing burden on the economy, and countries are working to change their pension arrangements to reflect this. Dr Zaidi concludes with a note of caution: 'Thus, in the absence of a behavioural response towards greater savings and more work during working lives, the risk of poverty for future elderly populations in EU countries will increase,' reads the report.