Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
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Home-ownership in later life: financial benefit or burden?
- Authors:
- HANCOCK Ruth, et al
- Publisher:
- York Publishing Service/Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 1999
- Pagination:
- 70p.,tables,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- York
Study analysing the financial costs and benefits of owner-occupation in later life. Includes sections on: home ownership among older people in Britain; the housing wealth of older home owners; is owning cheaper than renting; the potential for housing wealth to supplement income in later life; housing as a form of saving; and conclusions and policy issues.
More ways than means: a guide to pensioners' incomes in Great Britain during the 1980's
- Authors:
- HANCOCK Ruth, WEIR Peter
- Publisher:
- Age Concern Institute of Gerontology
- Publication year:
- 1994
- Pagination:
- 43p.
- Place of publication:
- London
Ageing, income and living standards: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey
- Authors:
- BERTHOUD Richard, BLEKESAUNE Morten, HANCOCK Ruth
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 29(7), October 2009, pp.1105-1122.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
In Britain, older people have lower average incomes and a higher risk of income poverty than the general population. Older pensioners are more likely to be in poverty than younger ones. Yet certain indicators of their living standards suggest that older people experience less hardship than expected, given their incomes. A possible explanation is that older people convert income into basic living standards at a higher rate than younger people, implying that as people age they need less income to achieve a given standard of living. Much existing evidence has been based on cross-sectional data and therefore may not be a good guide to the consequences of ageing. Longitudinal data was used on people aged at least 50 years from the British Household Panel Survey to investigate the effects of ageing on the relationship between standard of living, as measured by various deprivation indices, and income. It was found that for most indices, ageing increases deprivation when controlling for income and other factors. The exception is a subjective index of ‘financial strain’, which appears to fall as people age. Evidence of cohort effects were also found. At any given age and income, more-recently-born older people in general experience more deprivation than those born longer ago. To some extent these ageing and cohort effects balance out, which suggests that pensions do not need to change with age.
Assessing the distributional impact of reforms to disability benefits for older people in the UK: implications of alternative measures of income and disability costs
- Authors:
- HANCOCK Ruth, PUDNEY Stephen
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 34(2), 2014, pp.232-257.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
The UK Attendance Allowance (AA) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) are non-means-tested benefits paid to many disabled people aged 65 + . They may also increase entitlements to means-tested benefits through the Severe Disability Premium (SDP). The authors investigate proposed reforms involving withdrawal of AA/DLA. Despite their present non-means-tested nature, they show that withdrawal would affect mainly low-income people, whose losses could be mitigated if SDP were retained at its current or a higher level. The authors also show the importance of the method of describing distributional impacts and that use of inappropriate income definitions in official reports has overstated recipients' capacity to absorb the loss of these benefits. (Publisher abstract)
Projections of owner-occupation rates, house values, income and financial assets among older people, UK, 2002-2022
- Authors:
- HANCOCK Ruth, et al
- Publisher:
- Personal Social Services Research Unit
- Publication year:
- 2006
- Pagination:
- 11p.
- Place of publication:
- Canterbury
This paper contains projections of owner-occupation rates, house values, income and financial assets among people aged 85+ in the UK covering the period 2002 to 2022. The projections have been produced by the microsimulation model CARESIM. CARESIM is a model which simulates the amounts that current and future older people would be required to pay towards residential or home care, should they need that care, under different charging regimes. The projections presented here are produced as an input to those simulations. CARESIM uses a sample of people aged 65 years and over drawn from the Family Resources Survey and projections involve ageing this sample. The sample is not ‘refreshed’ i.e. people under the age of 65 in the base year (2002) are not brought into the sample as they reach 65. By 2022, therefore, CARESIM projections apply only to those aged 85 and over. For this reason results for 2022 are given only for those aged 85 and over. Results for years between 2002 and 2022 are shown only for those age groups for which CARESIM projections apply.
Charging for care in later life: a summary of the effects of reforming the means tests
- Author:
- HANCOCK Ruth
- Publisher:
- University of Leicester. Nuffield Community Care Studies Unit
- Publication year:
- 2000
- Pagination:
- 12p.
- Place of publication:
- Leicester
Brief report on an analysis of the financial consequences for older people of possible alterations to the means test for care provided in residential settings and in people's own homes.
Housing wealth, income and financial wealth of older people in Britain
- Author:
- HANCOCK Ruth
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 18(1), January 1998, pp.5-33.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
Explores the housing wealth of older people in Britain in relation to their incomes and financial wealth. Uses the Family Expenditure Survey data for 1992/3 to 1993/4 to assess the extent to which housing wealth could alleviate income poverty in old age. Analysis suggests that although housing wealth increases with both income and financial wealth, there are non-negligible portions of low income older people who could generate small supplements to their incomes by converting the wealth tied up in their homes into an income stream. However, asks whether this be sufficient to pay for long-term residential care for any length of time.
Opinions on pensions: older people's attitudes to incomes, taxes and benefits
- Authors:
- ASKHAM Janet, HANCOCK Ruth, HILLS Julie
- Publisher:
- Age Concern Institute of Gerontology
- Publication year:
- 1995
- Pagination:
- 38p.,tables,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
Research study based on the views and attitudes of older people towards financial matters as they affect them.
Pensioners' expenditure: an assessment of changes in living standards, 1979 - 1991
- Authors:
- SMEATON Deborah, HANCOCK Ruth
- Publisher:
- Age Concern Institute of Gerontology
- Publication year:
- 1995
- Pagination:
- 70p.,tables.
- Place of publication:
- London
Uses a detailed analysis of total household expenditure, its levels and distribution, to provide a comparison of living standards over time and between different social groups of older people.
Winners and losers: assessing the distributional effects of long-term care funding regimes
- Authors:
- HANCOCK Ruth, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Society, 6(3), July 2007, pp.379-395.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
Using two linked simulation models, we examine the public expenditure costs and distributional effects of potential reforms to long-term care funding in the UK. Changes to the means tests for user contributions to care costs are compared with options for the abolition of these means tests (‘free’ personal care). The latter generally cost more than the former and benefit higher income groups more than those on lower incomes (measuring income in relation to the age-specific income distribution). Reforms to the means tests target benefits towards those on lower incomes. However, the highest income group are net losers if free personal care is financed by a higher tax rate on higher incomes and the effect on the whole population considered.