Annual cost of being a pensioner in the UK jumps £800

Pensioners now need £215 a week to cope with everyday costs.

The annual cost of being a pensioner in the UK has risen to £11,200 in 2015, up more than £800 from £10,387 last year, according to analysis by Key Retirement.

The figure comes from adding up everyday spends including food, clothes, travel and heating.

Pensioners in the UK now need around £215 a week to cover these basic costs, up from £200 compared to last year.

But there are big variations at a regional level as the table below shows.

Region	Annual cost 2015	Weekly cost 2015	Annual cost 2014	Weekly cost 2014
South East	£13,216	£254	£11,945	£230
London	£12,992	£250	£11,322	£218
East of England	£11,760	£226	£11,144	£214
South West	£11,648	£224	£10,906	£210
Northern Ireland	£10,976	£211	£10,179	£196
East Midlands	£10,523	£202	£9,971	£192
North West	£10,343	£199	£9,764	£188
West Midlands	£10,270	£198	£9,348	£180
Scotland	£10,080	£194	£10,075	£194
Wales	£9,856	£190	£8,829	£170
Yorkshire & Humberside	£9,744	£187	£9,348	£180
North East	£9,630	£185	£9,348	£180
UK	£11,200	£215	£10,387	£200

Source: Key Retirement

As you can see pensioners in the North East will need £9,630 a year to live compared to £13,216 in the South East – around 37% less.

Key Retirement’s analysis found the average retired household spends around 15% of their budget on fuel and housing, the equivalent of £1,680 over 12 months.

Meanwhile a 14% share is spent on food and non-alcoholic drinks, which amounts to £1,568 a year while transport costs take an 11% chunk, which equates to £1,232 annually.

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State Pension not enough to live on

Key Retirement warned those approaching retirement to plan carefully and maximise income to ensure they have enough money to fund the typical cost of living as a pensioner.

It says the current State Pension (£113.10 a week or £5,881.20 a year) and even the new State Pension (£148.40 a week or £7,716.80 a year) planned for April 2016 will not cover the basic costs of being retired in any region of the UK.

What is the annual cost going to be for you?

The Key Retirement figures paint a broad picture about what it will cost to be a pensioner in the UK.

Read How to work out how much you need to save for retirement to understand what you will need in retirement for a comfortable lifestyle.

You can also use the lovemoney.com Plans tool to help you understand your current wealth and what you need to do to ensure a better retirement.

More on pensions and retirement:

Pension Tracing Service to triple in size

Free State Pension statement now available to over-55s

How to avoid the 55% pension lifetime allowance savings trap