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Deprivation study pinpoints ethnic divide among elderly
Elderly people from the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Britain are far more likely to suffer from multiple deprivation than their Indian or white contemporaries, according to a survey of the over-60s published yesterday by the office for national statistics. It found 28% of older Pakistani and Bangladeshis were in households with no central heating that were more likely to suffer from dampness and condensation. And 38% lived in overcrowded homes with more than one person per room. They were almost three times as likely to live in a household without a phone than white, Indian or black Caribbean older people. The report said the ethnic dimension of social inequality among older people could no longer be overlooked. There were nearly 250,000 over-60s from ethnic minority groups, and this number was set to swell as these groups aged. The high point of immigration from the Caribbean was in the early 1960s. Immigration from India and Pakistan peaked in the early 1970s, and from Bangladesh and Hong Kong in the early 1980s. "The proportion of older people within ethnic minority groups is expected to increase over the next couple of decades, as the first generation migrants from the different minority groups begin to retire," said the author of the report, Maria Evandrou of Kings College, London. On an index of multiple deprivation, the survey found 47% of Pakistani and Bangladeshi pensioners experience three or more types of disadvantage, compared to 42% of black Caribbeans, 26% Irish, 19% white and 13% Indian. Two-thirds of white elderly people live in owner-occupied accommodation, usually without mortgage commitments. Indian elders have the highest rates of owner-occupation (88%), but often with an outstanding mortgage. Black Caribbean, Irish and Pakistani and Bangladeshi older people were more likely to live in local authority or housing association accommodation. Black Caribbeans were least likely to live in a household with a car. Nearly two-thirds relied entirely on public transport, affecting ease of shopping and attending hospital. Just over a fifth of white and a quarter of Irish elderly people are in the bottom fifth of the income scale, compared to a third of the older black Caribbeans, half the Indians, and three-fifths of older Pakistani and Bangladeshis. • Shelter, the housing charity, warned yesterday that homelessness has reached record levels in England. Figures from the Department of the Environment showed the number of households living in temporary accommodation was 66,030 in the secondquarter, a rise of 11% on a year before. "Households on low incomes are the innocent victims of the housing boom. As rents continue to soar thousands of households are becoming homeless. Our experience shows that temporary accommodation such as bed and breakfast hostels are totally unsuitable for nurturing stable family life," said Chris Holmes, the charity's director. Other official figures showed the number of homeless households living in bed and breakfast hostels was 8,380. Shelter said that while house prices were beginning to level out, soaring rents showed no signs of falling, leading to a shortage of affordable housing and homelessness for thousands of low-incomes families. The situation was particularly acute in London where rents have risen 62% since 1993 to an average of £285 per week for a two-bedroom flat. House prices in the capital now average £193,000. Shelter called for "massive investment in decent affordable housing". About 100,000 affordable homes per year had to be built between 2000 and 2011 to tackle the crisis, it said.
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