Not every pensioner lives in a mortgage-free home. Rising rents mean more are facing homelessness

The UK government’s latest statistics on homelessness have been released and they make for grim reading.

As a charity supporting older people facing poverty, they demonstrate a national picture that illustrates what we hear all too often from individuals: that private renting is still far too precarious for older private renters and that some are facing homelessness. At Independent Age, we think that a private rental market, where homes are often unaffordable and therefore still too insecure, is likely driving this rise.  

The number of older households facing homelessness in the year to end March 2026 was a record 16,440. This is the highest number since this metric has been published and, as the number of older renters is set to quadruple by 2040, it is likely that the risk of homelessness for this group could also continue to rise. This is a sign that something is going badly wrong for older renters.

Our charity welcomes both Andy Burnham’s commitment to end rough sleeping and the changes brought in as part of the Renters’ Rights Act which provide additional protections for renters of all ages, but the rise in older people facing homelessness shows that further action is needed now, especially when it comes to affordability.

Read more:

• Andy Burnham to donate 15% of PM’s salary to homelessness fight: ‘I want to lead from the front’
• ‘If people are sleeping rough, to me it says we don’t have the care for people that we should have’
• Every rough sleeper to be offered a route off the street by Christmas, says Andy Burnham

Despite the myth that all older people are living in mortgage-free homes, this isn’t the reality at all for the hidden group of older renters living on low incomes that we support. And, due in part to rent being so high, being an older private renter makes you much more likely to be in poverty in later life than homeowners with one-third of this group in poverty after their housing costs.

Many lower income older renters rely on housing benefit to meet their rent. But the system that decides the amount is not fit for purpose, often leaving those in financial hardship saddled with unaffordable housing costs. For the renters we support this often means making dangerous cutbacks or running the risk of homelessness. One man told us increases in his rent over the last year have ‘outstripped the increases in [his] pension’ and ‘because housing benefit is based on an unrealistic rent’, it leaves too little for life’s essentials.

Housing benefit for private renters is determined by a mechanism called local housing allowance (LHA), which is supposed to cover the lowest 30% of the private rented market in the local area. But LHA has been frozen for eight out of the last 15 years. Currently, LHA is frozen at April 2024 levels and since then, rents nationally have risen by an average of 11.7%.

This is leaving renters with sometimes huge shortfalls in their personal budgets. We’ve spoken to older people who have to find sometimes hundreds of additional pounds from their small incomes to pay their rent. This means that even older renters receiving the housing benefit they are entitled to are having to restrict what most of us would see as essentials to meet their rent. We’ve spoken to people cutting back on things like showers, healthy food, and broadband because housing benefit doesn’t come even close to covering their rent. One older renter told us that, even after receiving her housing benefit she was still “living week to week” and only “affording what food I can”.

We know that homelessness can be complex, and caused by a myriad of reasons, but it’s clear that a lack of affordable properties is a key driver, especially in later life. While it’s great that the UK government has pledged to build more social housing, with the number of older people facing homelessness rising quickly, older renters need urgent support.

The crisis of unaffordability in the private rented sector is happening now and having a devastating impact on the lives of renters of all ages. Losing your home is one of the worst things that can happen in someone’s life. Until action is taken, this threat continues to loom large over the heads of older renters. But change is possible. In the short-term renters of all ages need the UK government to uprate LHA in the autumn budget so that it reflects at least the lowest 30% of the rental market. But they also need longer-term security and a commitment from Andy Burnham’s government that they will do this every year, so that renters on a low income don’t face the terrifying prospect of homelessness.

Morgan Vine is director of policy and influencing at Independent Age

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