“I had a gold chain, I sold everything.” More and more elderly people below the poverty line

In its 2024 report, the Petits Frères des Pauvres association warns of the growing number of poor elderly people. If the Pays de la Loire is doing less badly than other regions, there is still, behind many doors, often silent emotional, material and social misery.

Jean-Michel Bortone likes to leave his bedroom door open. No doubt hoping that a visit will break his solitude in this convalescent establishment, north of Nantes.

After an operation on his left leg and chemotherapy, he is waiting here to find out what will become of him. Until now he was in a residence for the elderly, his future will then be in an EHPAD. However, he is only 67 years old. But his state of health no longer allows him to live alone.

Jean-Michel lives on a pension of €970, state aid included. When he was in his previous accommodation, before this operation, after paying his rent and utilities, he only had €40 left in good months.

“We deprive ourselves of everything, he said. I don’t buy clothes anymore, but I don’t care. It becomes a habit.” The important thing for him is to stay clean.

“I had a gold chain. I sold everything, he says. As my father used to say, when you have a plate of pasta and a roof to sleep over your head, what more could you ask for?”

Of Italian origin, the man lived in Marseille then in Italy, in Puglia. An adventurer, accumulating odd jobs, he ended up returning to France.

“The backpacker was tired and found a place to rest” he said.

Jean-Michel has become fatalistic. He is one of those people over 60 who live below the poverty line and who is supported by the Petits Frères des Pauvres association.

In France, 2 million people aged over 60 live below the poverty line (€1,216 per month for a single person).

This is one of the conclusions of the 2024 report from the Petits Frères des Pauvres association which, each year, takes stock of poverty among seniors and the elderly.

Among these people, more than two thirds (69%) had to go without heating, food or meetings during the year, due to lack of means.

This poverty in the population over 60 is a phenomenon that has always existed, of course, but the concern is that it has been developing for several years.

“After stabilizing for several years at around 8%, the poverty rate among elderly people has been increasing since 2015, reaching 11% today and up to 18% for seniors living alone”notes the association of Little Brothers of the Poor.

No one should make their meal a variable in their economic adjustment.

Emilie Sarrazin

Director West Regional Fraternity

In Pays de la Loire, the association estimates that the proportion of people over 60 living below the poverty line is lower than the national proportion. But the figures are skewed by the number of wealthier retirees who have moved to the west.

However, this poverty is there, which is increasing here too, but is not always visible.

“There are family, professional, health breakdowns, sometimes all three at the same time, explains Emilie Sarrazin, western regional director of Petits Frères des Pauvres. There is an increasing isolation of elderly people which creates precarious situations.”

Those who denounce social assistance fraud would do well to compare this figure with that of unclaimed aid, which is much higher.

“We realized that some do not trigger all their retirement rights, explains Emilie Sarrazin. Not triggering aid is a form of resignation.”

There is sometimes modesty in not mentioning one’s poverty, but there are also the flaws of an increasingly digitalized society which puts up walls, making a request for help a riddled obstacle course. traps. And there are also very stupid situations. Hearing problems, no mutual insurance to equip yourself with devices and therefore, the inability to pick up your phone to assert your rights.

And isolation is another given. Because if poverty facilitates isolation, conversely, isolation facilitates poverty. We no longer meet anyone, we are no longer in the circuits of solidarity, of assistance with procedures.

“I didn’t know you could be so alone, admits Emilie Sarrazin who arrived a year and a half ago as director of the Petits Frères des Pauvres in the west. These are people who endure their lives, who have been beaten down by life, but who have admirable dignity.” And to quote an elderly person he met recently and who admitted to him: “I have 12 euros left to live on each month. It’s okay.”

According to what she was able to observe, there are many different profiles among these poor elderly people. Many women with a somewhat choppy career path, particularly farmers’ wives in Mayenne. “Many were born into poverty. They have not been able to get their heads above water in their lives,” she summarizes.

Emilie believes that we should systematically take stock at the end of our career to explain what we may be entitled to.

In its recommendations, the association of Petits Frères des Pauvres calls for raising the minimum retirement age. You should know that this social minimum is today more than 200 euros below the poverty threshold.

The association also discusses the difficulties that elderly people encounter in accessing their rights due to an increasingly digital administration, difficult to contact people, unsuitable tools and proposes “to improve the training of France Services agents and town hall secretaries in welcoming the elderly.”

Jean-Michel would like to recover his computer equipment left in the accommodation he occupied before his hospitalization.

But what he misses most, he says, is a companion “so as not to find yourself alone in a room. to share sorrows and good times”.

“In 10 or 20 years, I’m going to say amen to everyone. I’m fed up” he whispers.

“What’s crazy is the mental load it takes to get through these situations,” notes Emilie Sarrazin who nevertheless wants to remain hopeful, even if she notes that there is no minister for the elderly in the new government.

“We must invent, she concludes, new forms of solidarity, new ways of living, new forms of aid. We are all capable of doing a little prevention regarding this.”

In the west of France, there is something that helps slow down the phenomenon of impoverishment among the elderly: the associative fabric. Wealth worth gold.

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