Nearly a million older people are one big bill away from financial ruin, a charity is warning.

Many pensioners on low, fixed incomes spend extra on health items, heating and travel due to illness, disability, insecure or poor housing and living far from their families.

This leaves them with less cash for food and none to cover emergency spending, according to Age UK’s Struggling On report.

It comes after recent Government figures showing two million pensioners now live in poverty, with 930,000 saying they could not afford to pay an unexpected bill of £200.

Those interviewed by the charity said it was a battle to make ends meet.

Alice, 76, from Bristol said: “I have no disposable income, so I’m using my agreed overdraft by the time the end of the month comes. I’ve been in the overdraft for three years.”

Dorothy, 81, from High Wycombe, Bucks, added: “You have to just sort of struggle on really. I can probably carry on for another three years. But it depends what goes up, the rent, council tax…”

Caroline Abrahams, of Age UK, said: “We are worried about the emergence of a subset of pensioners so stretched financially an unexpected big bill could mean total disaster.

“Part of the problem is low incomes, but another largely overlooked element is the extra costs that come with getting older.

“Our report lifts the lid on what it is like to struggle financially in later life… pensioner poverty is on the rise.”

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