I have picked up from the pensions industry some comments on the lack of reforms of pensions but it wasn’t till I read this piece and the article in the Guardian that I realised how little we have done and are doing to help older people with care. This is as much to do with growing old as the income that pensions bring.
Our ageing society… and what we can learn from other countries
Tony Watts OBE, Editor info@theageactionalliance.org
An excellent article in today’s Guardian encapsulates pretty much all of the arguments made on a regular basis in this column.
The author has travelled around the globe to see how other countries are dealing with the challenges (and, lest we forget, opportunities) of their ageing societies.
In brief: European states have failed to plan for the long term while countries like Japan and Taiwan grasped the nettle early enough to now have solutions in place.
The section on care is the most damning:
“When it comes to building a transparent system for funding care for older people, the UK is the most abject of all.
“Successive prime ministers have called for change yet have run away from sensible reforms produced by commissions they established, hoping that, by delaying a problem, it would somehow go away.”
And while all this short-termism is certainly being felt by those at the receiving end, there’s a lesson for the politicians in this too: leaders who have failed to act “are being punished anyway”.
On which note, there was nothing to lift the spirits of social care leaders in the King’s Speech, while dealing with pensioner poverty also missed the cut.
Meanwhile, care leaders sensibly recognise that some newly-elected councillors around the country (the non AI-generated ones anyway) might not be fully up to speed with adult social care and are offering (in the nicest possible way) to fill them in.
Carers UK have produced a new report on the unenviable plight of those trying to combine caring for a loved one with keeping a roof over their heads, and there’s a lovely piece on how professional carers often play a huge role in their clients’ lives.
There’s more worrying news from the pensions and savings sector as we learn that around half of savers don’t feel they are in control of their retirement finances, plus a warning from Martin Lewis not to inadvertently leave your pension to your ex.
We end with an interesting piece on the research going on around the world on healthy ageing and discover why some older people seem glued to their TVs.
I would add to this beautiful article this passionate comment from Independent Age
Independent Age Chief Executive Joanna Elson, CBE said:
“The King’s Speech did not go far enough in addressing pensioner poverty. We welcome the UK Government’s ambition to tackle the high cost of living and improve living standards, but the legislative agenda needs to meaningfully support older people on low incomes.
“Today’s announcement left a glaring hole in the Water Bill, with no mention of a national social tariff for water in England and Wales which our research has shown would lift hundreds of thousands of older people out of water poverty.
“Energy support measures are welcome and we urge the UK Government to go further byenhancing the Warm Home Discount and introducing a more comprehensive energy social tariff to provide long-term protection against rising energy costs.This is extremely important in an increasingly volatile world.
“The income of the older people we support is often dangerously low and does not even cover the basic necessities of life. People tell us they are washing less, having just one small meal a day and not socialising as they cannot afford a cup of coffee. With 1.7 million older people living in poverty, the time for action is now.”
