The 'grey pound' set to hit £100bn mark‚ says Age Concern and Help the Aged

Older consumers have grown into a market force to be reckoned with‚ says Age Concern and Help the Aged‚ as new figures reveal the amount of money spent annually by people over the age of 65 in the UK is set to hit the £100 billion mark.

*word removed* figures published in the ONS ‘Family Spending’ report last week‚ the Charity has calculated that older people’s spending reached an estimated £97billion in 2008‚ around 15 per cent of the overall household expenditure. Allowing for inflation and the average annual increase in the number of people in this age group‚ the Charity predicts that this figure is now likely to have passed the £100 billion milestone. For people aged 50 and over‚ the Charity calculates that the figure soared to £276 billion in 2008‚ making up around 44 per cent of the total family spending in the UK1.

Yet despite seeing their weight in the consumer market grow as a group‚ older people are still at risk of being frozen out of a marketplace which is slow to adjust to the evolution of an ageing society‚ Age Concern and Help the Aged warns. Research by the Charity found that many older people think businesses and retailers have little interest in the consumer needs of older age groups and many still face obstacles in accessing financial services tailored to the needs of a younger audience.

Age Concern and Help the Aged is calling on businesses to wake up to the scale of the opportunity presented by older consumers and to adopt a more inclusive approach to the design of products and services. This would benefit companies in a number of ways‚ the Charity argues‚ as they would unlock a potential new revenue stream‚ increase their market share and improve customer relationships.

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