The elderly, inflation, the difficulty of buying food and fuel have a fatal impact on the lives of people in old age

ROME – The global crisis of food, fuel and the economy in general is having a devastating impact on millions of elderly people around the world: they are unable to buy safe food, cannot afford medical care and sometimes cannot even reach hospitals due to too high prices for transportation. The testimonies collected in ten countries and reported by the organization reveal a world of suffering, where the only hope is to die. The global crisis, of which the elderly are among the main victims, has been fueled by a combination of factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine which has sent food and fuel prices soaring, climate change: all causes that have aggravated pre-existing problems such as poverty and inequality.

A crisis within crises. Rising food and fuel costs are affecting millions of people around the world, but for older people with little or no income it can have devastating effects. The elderly – the report reads – find it particularly difficult to cope with the increase in costs as they do not have alternative sources of income to afford food, health care and other basic necessities. Unlike what happens in the West, most of the people who are no longer of working age interviewed by HelpAge they have no access to pensions or other public safety nets that could help them overcome the difficulties. The organization’s searches were conducted in Argentina, Colombia, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Malawi, Mozambique, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Yemen.

Skip meals to survive. The report shows that high food prices are reducing the number of meals senior citizens and their families can afford. In Malawi, where food inflation reached 34 percent in October 2022 and bread prices doubled in the same year, 97 percent of older people reduced the number of meals they ate each day. 82 percent cannot even afford to eat for a whole day.

The testimonials. In Lebanon, where food inflation rose 322 percent between March and June 2022, Yasmine, an 84-year-old widow from Ain El Remmaneh, told HelpAge that his life is now close to a nightmare. “We changed our diets, our lifestyles, gave up visiting our friends because of the cost of fuel, gave up eating all the time and tried to find alternative methods of heating or cooling.” “We buy bread and cheese but we give it to our grandchildren, it’s not enough for us either,” said an elderly man in Yemen.

Older women are more vulnerable than men. The crisis is affecting both men and women. But the latter work most of the time at home or dedicating themselves to unpaid care tasks and therefore have no form of social protection or the possibility of receiving a pension. In Ethiopia, for example, only 7.3 percent of elderly people receive a pension and only 10 percent of these are women.

Rising medical bills put your health at risk. The cost of health care increases and so does the cost of fuel or the means of transport needed to reach clinics and hospitals. Home assistance in many areas of the world is completely lacking. And so for many people the only alternative is to stop treating themselves or to buy, when possible, medicines with a lower dosage than what would be needed to feel good. As one lady in Yemen recounted, she had to sell a gas cylinder to cover her husband’s medical bills.

Conflicts and climate change aggravate the social crisis. In Colombia, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Yemen, research has shown that conflicts also weaken the ability of the elderly to handle a critical situation. As is the case in Ethiopia or the Philippines, where the most vulnerable people also have to deal with the effects of climate change, including droughts and devastating cyclones.