Cost of living crisis contributing to loneliness as more than a half a million pensioners facing Christmas alone
According to Age UK, around one in 20 older people are facing Christmas without speaking to anyone. The charity says the rising cost of living is forcing pensioners to lead more solitary lives.
Thursday 1 December 2022 21:34, UK
Throughout her house in Lichfield, Diana Reading has photographs of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
But at the age of 80 she isn't able to see them as often as she'd like.
Many of them live abroad and none of them live close to her home in Staffordshire.
It means she's among more than half a million pensioners who are facing Christmas alone.
"I have been very down about it because I think when one gets older and feeling now any day could be my last or my last Christmas – you don't want to think that, but it's true – and I just wanted the family to be together so much," she said.
"I will feel sad. I'll just try to think of happy times and my family and hope people will call me."
According to Age UK, around one in 20 older people are facing Christmas without speaking to anyone
They say the rising cost of living is forcing pensioners to lead more solitary lives, as one in four older people say money worries mean they're having to cut back on social activities.
'It takes you into dark places'
Ms Reading says the pandemic, along with ill health and the deaths of her sister and one of her sons, all contributed to her spending much more time alone.
"Mentally and physically, I went downhill," she said. "You go down to a level where you're sort of just existing and you don't even realise it.
"From being a very sociable person who likes my own space, I really have suffered from loneliness, and I'm amazed how it has affected me, and it takes you into dark places."
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She spent much of her life touring the world as a musician and has looked at joining a choir locally, but says the cost of a bus or taxi to get there is too much.
"There's the expense of going out and so everything costs," she added.
She has been helped by a charity in the nearby town of Tamworth that provides weekly phone calls to older people.
In some cases, the calls from staff and volunteers are the only contact people have with the outside world.
'We're in a perfect storm this winter'
Lee Bates from the charity, Community Together CIC, explained that the number of people they help has almost doubled in the last year.
"I think we're in a perfect storm this winter with the cost of living, the energy crisis and also people being lonely and isolated," he said.
"We'll have a full team here making calls to everyone on our list on Christmas Day. These people will be at home on their own, really looking forward to that call, and it'll really mean a lot.
"It's just that being there for someone and knowing someone's thinking of them."
'They simply can't afford it'
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: "After all the fear and anxiety of the pandemic, many of us had been looking forward to a jollier, more sociable Christmas this year.
"Sadly, it seems that the cost of living crisis has put paid to that for millions of older people, because they simply can't afford it.
"I fear that there will be many others whose loved ones won't have the money to travel to see them, if they live some distance away.
"I hate to think of how many older people will be stuck at home over the holidays, quite possibly cold as well as alone, with nothing to look forward to and feeling a desperate lack of both comfort and companionship."