Coping with old-age poverty – the role of agency and different forms of societal support

Across Europe, there is a substantial but varying number of older people struggling to make ends meet. We examine how older people with a low income make use of their individual resources and those that are available from their family and community as well as public support (in cash and in kind) when coping with poverty. This article is based on the experience of old-age poverty, drawing on 59 life-course interviews with low-income older people in Norway, Germany, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. We introduce a typology of coping strategies with two main dimensions: the capacity for agency and the capacity for transformation. We show that coping strategies vary not only based on individual factors and appropriate social policy support, but also on further societal support provided by civil society, families or social networks that supplements or compensates for gaps in social policy provision.