Policy makers need to take action allowing older people to work and save for longer in order to improve their quality of life, Help the Aged has asserted.

The charity makes its announcement today in response to the findings of its Spotlight on Older People in the UK study, which revealed that 93 per cent believe their lives have not improved in the last year.

Meanwhile, one in three suggested that their standard of living has deteriorated over the last 12 months.

Paul Cann, director of policy at the charity, commented: "If steps are not taken to enable people to carry on working and saving, to improve public health, and to ensure that adequate social care is available for those who need it, growing numbers of people will be blighted by disadvantage in older age."

The charity is calling for a commitment to ending pensioner poverty, a ban on age discrimination to be extended outside the workplace and public bodies to be established to promote age equality.

Yesterday Help the Aged responded to the government's green paper on discrimination law, stating that policy on older people was "lagging behind".