Ms Houghton, 78, is struggling with rising food and electricity prices.

She rents her house and is living with several health conditions.

"I've hardly left my bedroom for two years since having a stroke and heart and kidney failure. I can't walk at the moment," she said.

Her daughter Donna is her carer.

"I would be living on the street if not for her," Ms Houghton said.

"I couldn't pay for my food and medication if I was living alone. I wouldn't be able to feed myself."

Ms Houghton is expecting her rent to go up, with council rates rising.

"My landlord has been very good, though. I've been renting here for 20 years," she said.

Her pension is $1132 a fortnight, including $145 of rental assistance.

"I pay $675 to the real estate agency out of that, including $15 for water and $660 for rent.

"About $110 goes towards food. I pay $75 a fortnight for electricity, $60 for the internet and another $30 for my mobile phone.

"My daughter has been paying for my mobile phone lately out of housekeeping money because I haven't had enough."

She pays $140 a fortnight into a funeral fund.

"When I pass away, my daughter gets $26,000 for funeral costs and whatever she needs to pay.

"I'm on three prescriptions as I take about 25 tablets a day. My medications cost $50 a fortnight. My daughter pays for that."

Last year, the pair used an ordinary bar heater they'd been using for years. Their electricity bill rose from $500 to $800 a quarter.

"I've never had my electricity bill go up by that much," Ms Houghton said.

This year, Donna put aside money for electricity to make sure they could stay warm, but now power prices are rising further.

"It worries me how we'll pay for it," Ms Houghton said.

Food bills are difficult to manage. Even small price rises are noticeable.

"People see $2 as nothing, but when you're on a pension $2 is a lot of money," she said.

"We don't go out for coffee and we don't have special meals. Steak doesn't come into the house.

"On Mother's Day, Donna bought me a kilo of prawns and I went crook at her because we can't afford it. She said, 'Mum it's Mother's Day'.

"She doesn't go out anymore after I had a bad fall. She'll do shopping for an hour but ring to make sure I'm OK."

Donna, who receives the carer's pension, covers costs for food, petrol, car and contents insurance, along with repairs and unexpected expenses.

"Donna doesn't have money for herself. There's no going out buying clothing. She goes to second-hand stores for clothes," Ms Houghton said.

"Both our pensions more or less go."

She sometimes feels like "a second-class citizen".

"I go on Facebook a lot and see remarks about people 'bludging on the pension'.

"They say we should get off our arses and work like them. I get really angry."

Ms Houghton hasn't had the easiest life. Her father was killed at John Darling Colliery at Belmont at age 38. She was 13.

Her mother died nine years later at age 48.

"I was 22 then. It was 1966."

Her daughter Joanne died the following year from meningitis at age 18 months.

The following year, her marriage broke down.

Ms Houghton picked herself up and went to work in a bar, but it was tough because her three other children and two younger siblings were left at their Swansea home alone while she worked day and night.

"Some nights I'd work until 1.30am at the Orana Hotel," she said.

She also worked as a nursing assistant in her late 40s.

"It was something I always wanted to do. I finally did it when I was 48.

"I did my work. I feel I'm entitled to be looked after a bit on the pension. I don't ask for much," she said.

In March, the federal government increased the age pension by $20.10 a fortnight for singles and $15.10 for couples.

"If they said you'll get another $30 a fortnight in your pension, I'd be on top of the world," Ms Houghton said.

"I've seen people on Facebook say it's got to go up $200. I think to myself, come on you're kidding.

"There's a lot of pensioners out there. You can't expect $200. That's total idiocy.

"About $30 to $40 more a fortnight would be a bonus. It'd be like winning a lottery. It'd take part of the strain off."

She felt she and her daughter were "better off than some because we have each other".

"You see poor oldies on their own, struggling to do things. It must be very difficult for them, especially if their partner has passed away."

Ms Houghton's doctor told her she might not make it if she gets COVID.

"My daughter has me in a bubble. People say don't worry because many people who die of COVID are old anyway. You feel like you're a blight on society when you get to my age. It's not just me, there are so many out there really struggling."

Australian Council of Social Service acting CEO Edwina MacDonald highlighted federal rent assistance as an area for improvement.

"Inadequate rates of income support, especially for people renting privately, are the main reason why so many are struggling to cover the basics," Ms MacDonald said.

"Commonwealth rent assistance, the only supplementary payment to help people cover the cost of private rent, is just $73 a week."

She said this had not increased in more than 20 years.

"This is why people on pensions and other income support who rent in the private market struggle to cover the cost of food and other essentials.

"Sadly, many end up homeless."

She said the rate of income support should be raised.

She called for rent assistance to be lifted by 50 per cent to "better support people in the private rental market".

The Australian Bureau of Statistics released a report in May that found living costs for age pensioners rose 4.9 per cent in the March quarter, compared to the same period last year.

This was the largest quarterly rise since September 2000, following the introduction of the GST.

The largest contributors to the rises were food, non-alcoholic beverages and transport.

Food prices - notably fruit, vegetables, meat and seafood - were affected by supply chain disruptions and floods, along with transport, fertiliser, packaging and ingredient costs.

Fuel reached record levels in the March quarter, rising 35.1 per cent due to higher global oil prices, the economic recovery and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Health costs rose by 5.5 per cent for age pensioners.