OAPs’ spare cash up by £17,700

Disposable income for pensioners has increased by £17,700 since the end of the 1970s, new research has shown. Average disposable income for so-called retired households increased in almost every year from 1977, according to the Office for National Statistics.

with more than half the rise attributed to higher income from private pension schemes.

The £17,700 figure for 2010/11 was over two and a half times higher in real terms than in 1977, said the Office for National Statistics.

Retired households, where the combined income of retired people accounts for at least half to total income, pay a smaller proportion of their income in direct taxes, but more in indirect taxes such as VAT compared with 1977.

The average income of non-retired households has tended to increase during periods of economic growth but stagnate during recessions, said the report.