The level of poverty among British pensioners is the fourth highest in the EU, behind countries such as Romania, according to figures released by the European Commission.

The figures reveal that many over 65s in Britain are living on incomes far below the national average. However, the Department of Work and Pensions asserts that even the poorest British pensioners are better off than those living in other countries.

A DWP spokesperson said: “In 1997 our pensioners’ income was well below the European average. Today their income is nearly 10% higher than the EU average.”

The European Commission research, which preceded a Work and Pensions Committee report released yesterday on the government’s efforts to tackle pension poverty, compares relative poverty in the 27 member states. The figures show that in 2007 nearly one in three UK pensioners were living in poverty, the same proportion as in Lithuania (30%). The European average pensioner poverty level is 19%.

Brendan Paddy, from the charity Age Concern and Help The Aged said: “The findings are quite shocking, particularly because some years ago we were beginning to see poverty amongst older people in the UK begin to drop, but that progress has now very definitely stalled.”

“One of the big contributors has been low take-up of means-tested benefits, and one of the other big contributors has been rocketing food and fuel prices. The problem is the people who most need those benefits are the ones least likely to claim them. They’re not on anybody’s radar; not even ours.

“Also they find the forms and process to actually claim the benefit really off-putting.

“In addition to that, there’s some people who are just too proud to say, you know, I’m going to actually apply for this, whereas if it was part of their standard pension they’d accept it as their due.”

A separate report from the charity revealed that one in five people aged 60 and over was skipping meals to save money on food, while two in five were could not afford essential items.

Theresa May, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said that pensioners had become “the innocent victims of Gordon Brown’s recession”.

“It’s unacceptable that 2.5 million are living in official poverty,” she said. “The reality is that too many of the elderly are stuck in the vicious cycle of poverty because of Labour’s complicated and bureaucratic system of means-tested benefits. Furthermore, Labour’s obsession with pushing up council tax year after year has had a devastating impact on elderly people on fixed incomes.”

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