Speculation about threats to the medical card scheme, the State pension and free travel is causing great distress to older people, Age Action has told the International Monetary Fund.
Age Action said that at the meeting yesterday with the IMF, it had highlighted the impact which cutbacks and austerity measures were having on older people.
The national older people’s charity said it had sought the meeting following an IMF report earlier this month which proposed cuts in the universal supports for older people such as free travel and free gas/ electricity units for over-70s. The report had also called for an assessment of the “appropriateness of the real state pension rate”.
Age Action said it stressed that the State pension was the main source of income for the majority of pensioners, playing a key role in keeping older people out of poverty. Age Action chief executive Robin Webster said the IMF’s resident representative in Ireland, Peter Breuer, had assured the charity that the issues raised at the meeting would be sent on to its headquarters in Washington.