by Jason Beattie, Daily Mirror 26/12/2011
Lonely Elderly Woman At Christmas (pic: Getty)
UP to 250,000 over-75s spent Christmas Day on their own, according to a poll.
Some 12% of over-75s who responded to the Survation poll for the Centre for Social Justice thinktank and Independent Age in the run-up to Christmas said that they expected to spend the big day by themselves.
If repeated across the population, this equates to nearly 250,000 over-75s alone for Christmas, said the CSJ - even though the same survey found that a large majority of the elderly (77%) have children living in the UK.
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And the poll found that on ordinary days away from the festive season, almost one in five elderly people (18%) say they normally have no contact at all with other people. Some 66% of those who have "zero contact hours" in a typical day have children in the UK.
Men were most likely to be alone at Christmas, with 19% of men over 75 saying they would be on their own.
Asked how they would spend Christmas Day, some 76% said "with family", 12% by themselves and 9% "with others".
Traditional Christmas dinners were a feature of the day for 85% of those questioned, with just 10% saying they would not have one.
On a typical day, 18% said they spent no time at all with other people, 30% one or two hours, 27% two to four hours, 3% between four and six hours and 4% more than eight.
One 80-year-old woman from South Yorkshire told the pollsters: "I was working until I was 78, in a nursing home, but I had to stop because of collapsed discs in my back.
"I miss it, it was really sociable, and I miss the money. I don't really see anyone now, my children live miles away, so I have two cats. I talk to my cats."
Another respondent said: "Some days the only person I speak to is the boy in the shop when I pick up my paper."
And an 82-year-old man from London said: "If I didn't go out, I wouldn't talk to anybody.
"I have a bad back and I have good days and bad days, but at the moment it's so cold, I don't see anybody."
CSJ executive director Gavin Poole said: "Today's findings are heart-wrenching.
"We know about the tragic impact of family breakdown on the youngest members of our society. But now we're seeing the consequences for older people.
"For so many to spend Christmas day alone while their family celebrates elsewhere is a modern tragedy."
Janet Morrison, chief executive of Independent Age, commented: "Sadly the figures suggest being alone, and being alone on Christmas Day, is more prevalent amongst older people than many of us would like to believe or should be prepared to accept."
:: Survation questioned 2,003 people aged 75 to 103 by telephone between December 16 and 21.
Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/12/26/250-000-over-75s-spent-christmas-day-alone-115875-23659565/#ixzz1hbi8oyTX
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