A growing number of older people have been forced to seek help for homelessness over the last five years, official figures show.
There has been an upward trend in the number of adults over 60 applying to local councils for temporary accommodation and other help.
Office for National Statistics figures show a 39% increase in the number granted, up from 1,800 in 2012-13 to 2,500 five years later.
It came after shock figures published last week showed that more homeless were families are living in temporary accommodation in England than at any time for a decade.
Shadow housing secretary John Healey MP said: “Rough sleeping has more than doubled since 2010 as a direct result of decisions made by Conservative ministers: a steep drop in investment for affordable homes, crude cuts to housing benefit, reduced funding for homelessness services, and a refusal to help private renters.
“This spiralling scale of homelessness shames this Government when Britain is one of the richest countries in the world.”
The Government admitted last week that some 84,740 households were being put up in bed and breakfasts, hostels and other temporary accommodation at the end of March 2019.
The total includes 126,020 children - many of whom are forced to grow up in converted shipping containers and office buildings, crammed into tiny living spaces which are frequently not fit for them to live in.
It is the highest number of households in temporary accommodation in more than a decade.
The figure has jumped by more than three-quarters this decade, with the latest statistics showing a 76.5% rise on the low of 48,010 at the end of 2010.
The figures also show that London continues to have a disproportionately high number of households in temporary accommodation, with 66% of the total for the whole of England.
But separate Government figures show efforts to reduce the number of rough sleepers appear to have shown positive results.
The new data yesterday showed that the rise in over-60s asking for assistance coincided with a drop in the number of 16-24 year olds.
These fell by 29% from 16,820 acceptance by town halls in 2012-13 to 12,020 in 2017-18.
The ONS said the data should be treated with caution due to variations in recording practices across the UK.
