Public First recently conducted polling for Independent Age, the research included a a nationally representative poll of 2,014 UK adults, along with an additional booster survey of 500 UK adults aged over 65. Fieldwork ran from 4th Apr – 10th Apr 2025. All results are weighted using Iterative Proportional Fitting, or ‘Raking’. The results are weighted by interlocking age & gender, region and social grade to Nationally Representative Proportions. 

The focus of the research was to explore how far the public recognised poverty in later life as an important issue, and how far they think the UK Government should prioritise this group in policymaking.

You can find the full report here, and the polling tables here: Nat Rep Sample, Booster Sample

Key Findings:

Older people in poverty are a high priority for the public. Most (62%) people consider themselves aware of poverty in later life and most (79%) people identify it as a problem in the UK. The public say their vote at an election will be influenced by political parties’ policies on older people in poverty, more than any other group, and that they would be willing to pay more tax to support them. Older people in poverty are second only to families with children in poverty as a group the public identify as a top priority for the UK Government to support. The public overwhelmingly think that the UK Government have a role to play in addressing poverty in later life.

The public think that older people in general, and older people in poverty in particular, are disadvantaged compared to other groups. Other than on home ownership, they think that older people are worse off on average than other people in the UK; that they tend to be isolated, struggling and disrespected; and that they face significant cost-of-living challenges.

They also think that older people in poverty are not a priority for the current UK Government – and that older people in poverty, and older people in general, are the two groups that have been most negatively affected by the UK Government’s decisions in office so far since the General Election.

Means-testing Winter Fuel Payment has damaged public perceptions of the UK Government – by some distance, it is both the UK Government’s least popular policy of a list we tested, and the one most considered by the public to be bad for older people. This looks likely to be the biggest driver of our finding that older people in poverty are believed by the public to be the biggest losers so far since the UK general election.

There is strong support for restoring at least some eligibility for Winter Fuel Payment – but simply reinstating it in full is not the most popular option. A majority (58%) back full reinstatement, but there is equal or higher support for replacing cash payments with energy vouchers (57%), making the payments on an income[1]dependent sliding scale (63%), and restoring it for all pensioners except the richest 10% (68%). Full abolition of Winter Fuel Payment would be deeply unpopular, with 70% of the public opposing it.

Policies to support older people in poverty are very popular, both for helping them with costs, including utility bills and housing costs, and for ensuring that pensions and means tested social security entitlements are sufficient to keep people out of poverty in older age. Policies we tested that would restrict older people’s incomes, or their eligibility for pensions and social security support, are unpopular. And policies that help older people in poverty not only win support from the people who would benefit from them directly, but are also supported by other age groups: while the popular policies we tested were most popular with over-65s, all but one of them had net support from every single age cohort.