Study: Baby-boomers risk life of poverty

The number of people aged 65-plus is expected to double in the next 30 to 40 years. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

New Zealand's baby-boomers could end up living in poverty if critical issues of income, housing and health are not addressed, new research suggests.

The study into the wellbeing of the elderly, released today, consisted of 1680 interviews of 65-to 84-year-olds and was carried out in 2007 by the Family Centre social policy research unit and the Population Studies Centre at Waikato University.

The number of people aged 65-plus is expected to double in the next 30 to 40 years to about 25 per cent of the population.

Nearly 88 per cent of respondents said they were either "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with their life. Only 3.9 per cent were "very dissatisfied" or "dissatisfied".

However, the wellbeing of the majority of respondents was strongly influenced by New Zealand superannuation and home ownership, the study found.

Nearly half of respondents lived on New Zealand super plus $5000 or less and most owned their own homes.

"With home ownership rates dropping, and uncertainty about the future affordability of New Zealand super, providing for a growing elderly population is one of the country's most pressing issues," researcher Charles Waldegrave said.

It was vitally important to sustain the relative level of New Zealand superannuation in future years, he said.

"And policies that reverse the trend of declining home ownership for younger people will contribute significantly to better living standards for them as they grow old."

Mr Waldegrave said the prominence given to media reports of the worst "home invasions" made many older people feel less safe than they were.

"People's perceptions of safety are far more negative than their actual experience of having been in unsafe situations," he said.

"When you get people to record, 'Have you ever been in that situation?' there is a very low percentage. But there is a very high perception that older people are unsafe."

The study found that only 1.8 per cent of older people did not feel safe at home - 0.4 per cent because they had been a recent victim of a crime, 0.5 per cent because of threatening behaviour by neighbours or others, and 0.9 per cent for other or unstated reasons.

Only 6.6 per cent did not feel safe in their neighbourhood. Asked if they felt safe walking alone in their neighbourhood at night, 64.4 per cent said yes, 4.7 per cent no and 30.9 per cent said they never walked alone at night.

Mr Waldegrave hoped the results of the research would prompt policymakers, elder care providers and all New Zealanders to address future challenges. "If careful planning and consideration is not given to these issues, ageing baby-boomers will end up living in poverty."

The study found that men and those living with a partner or spouse reported a significantly greater sense of wellbeing than women.

However, it was likely the higher level of wellbeing for men was because they tended to die earlier than women, while they were still living with a partner.

Women lived longer and were more likely to be widowed.

Men, those living with a partner, the younger elderly and more educated people had more income and wealth.