peter
“I live in social housing. I live alone, but I happen to be involved in a lot of local community activities, like a local resource centre and mens’ groups. I have quite a full life even though I live alone. There are about 40 residents, all about the same age group as me, and not every one of them is as lucky to be as mobile as I am. Loneliness, isolation and mental health illness are still big issues for elderly people – especially in social housing communities – that need to be addressed. What makes my life difficult is the pension. The budget as you know was brought out last October, and as a senior citizen, I’m getting what’s called a state contributory pension, which hasn’t increased since 2009. With the recession, they actually cut it by €8 and last year increased it by €3. So it’s still €5 less than it was seven years ago. I would love to see a slightly bigger increase, as prices haven’t stopped growing… Making a living out of this amount is a tough challenge.”
‘Humans of the Election’ is a collaboration with Newstalk 106-108 fm highlighting the real people behind the issues we face in Ireland today (5/7)