Many older people find it hard to meet one-off costs as they get older.
Age Action's new report shows older people highly value the State pension, but many still struggle.
Three in 10 of those aged 66 and over rely on social protection for over 90 per cent of their income, and four in 10 rely on it for more than half of their money.
Age Action Policy Specialist, Nat O'Connor says women fare worse than men in older age:
"The ESRI reckons that there's a 35% pension gap between men and women, which is to say women's pensions are a third lower than men's, on average. So that's a huge gap. And we also know that of course, in situations where there's a bereavement, often a woman is left as a widow and can lose an awful lot of pension income, and at the same time still has all of the expenses of the same house".
