Unstable foundations: reflections on Age Cymru’s 2026 annual survey

Across March and April 2026, Age Cymru ran its seventh annual survey of people aged 50 and over in Wales. Against a backdrop of a Senedd election campaign and heightened geopolitical tensions, 1,448 older people from all twenty-two local authorities in Wales gave us their views on the cost of living, healthcare, social care, transport, housing, accessing information, climate change and more. Since then, Age Cymru’s policy team have been trawling through the results, identifying key themes and building a picture of people’s experiences, concerns and hopes for the future. Following on from our headlines report of 29 June, this blog post offers some reflections on the results and considers their implications for both the third sector and Welsh Government at the start of this new Senedd term. 

Our headlines report showed that two subjects concerned older people in Wales more than anything else: the cost of living and physical health. Indeed, the margin by which these issues took priority in people’s minds was striking: 53% of people reported struggling with their physical health in the last year (up from 50% in 2025) and 52% had found meeting the cost of living a challenge (up from 46% in 2025 - and just 9% in 2020). By comparison, the third most reported challenge (access to face-to-face banking) was only reported by 24% of people, a slight drop from 25% last year. 

What specific problems did people report? Regarding the cost of living, common concerns included higher oil prices (the survey was launched on 2 March, two days after the first airstrikes on Iran), increased water bills (Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water raised its bills by 27% in 2025-26, while Hafren Dyfrdwy bills went up by 19.5% in 2024-25 and 14.2% in 2025-26) and rising Council Tax. When asked if they had made any changes to reduce day-to-day expenses, 53% of people said they had cut back on fuel use and 21% used less water.  

Of course, fuel and water prices fluctuate (at the time of publishing, oil prices are steadily falling again), but it’s the suddenness of change that seemed to worry people most. The Iran War – and its immediate effect on oil prices – was a surprise for most Welsh consumers, mirroring the shock rise in gas prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Although less geopolitical in origin, the recent jump in water bills has had a similar effect, surprising people and giving them little time to adjust financially. As several respondents commented, such sudden price rises gave them no time to budget, nor for the State Pension (which is calculated annually) to catch up. 

"Biggest expense is my car: it's a necessity because I need it to get to the people I care for. Fuel and maintenance of my car have rocketed and I'm very worried that I won't be able to afford it much longer, meaning those I care for will suffer too." (F, Bridgend)   

As for health, around half of respondents found it difficult to make a GP appointment, often due to their local surgery operating an ‘8am rush’ phoneline system. Nearly one quarter (up from one fifth last year) found it difficult to travel to healthcare appointments, usually citing a lack of parking or limited public transport. 2026 was also the first year in which we asked people for their experiences of corridor care, meaning care that took place in an inappropriate place within a hospital or ambulance. 17% of respondents reported cases of corridor care, with the longest lasting three weeks. In some cases, we heard of dying people spending their last hours on wheeled stretchers in the corridors and side rooms of crowded hospitals. A common theme throughout all these experiences is health service capacity, with healthcare staff (who were often praised in the comments) and systems unable to meet everyone’s needs, resulting in delayed care, scant communication and access difficulties.  

What is notable about these two issues – cost of living and physical health – is how much they transcended the other challenges reported by respondents. Plenty of people voiced concerns about paying for social care, accessing public transport, the difficulty of securing home adaptations or the unreliability of online-only information – but their concerns often returned to the core themes of cost and health. For example, of the 18% of people who struggled to get out and about last year, nearly half put it down to poor physical health, while around one quarter said that the cost of transport (whether fuel for their car or the price of bus, taxi or train journeys) was prohibitive. Housing complaints likewise tended to focus on the cost of repairs, or on the unsuitability of the home to the person’s health needs.  

"Unable to walk far or stand for long, so unable to catch buses/trains." (M, Swansea) 

These findings show the foundational role played by both health and wealth in a person’s ability to live a safe, independent and fulfilling life in older age. It is therefore vital that older people in Wales have access to a steady income and reliable healthcare services. Sadly, the message of the 2026 annual survey is that older people in Wales are increasingly uncertain about whether they will be able to maintain both their finances and their health into the future. As a recent report by the Centre for Ageing Better notes, the last decade has seen a divergence between a relatively well-off and healthy ‘secure majority’ of older people and a growing ‘precarious minority’ who are poorer and more prone to ill-health. Our results reflect this trend: it’s a crude measurement, but when we asked people if they felt optimistic about the year ahead, 33% said ‘yes’ and 40% said ‘no’. In 2025, those figures had been 42% and 34% respectively. 

"Anything could happen, politically, socially, personally, and that makes optimism difficult." (F, Pembrokeshire) 

This should be cause for alarm in a country where people aged 65+ already make up 22.4% of the population – a figure that is due to grow to 26.1% by 2036. At the precise moment that Welsh society needs greater stability, it instead faces growing uncertainty about how its older generations will continue to live in comfort and safety. For charities like Age Cymru, this means stepping up campaigns to bring older people’s experiences of financial precarity and difficulty accessing healthcare to the urgent attention of policymakers. For the new Welsh Government and new intake of Senedd Members, this means finding ways to provide greater stability to people’s lives - to convince them that they will be able to grow older without sudden financial shocks or twenty-four-hour waits in A&E. It is only by tackling these core issues that the narrative of growing uncertainty can be reversed.