Friday 23 September 2011

Good week/bad week

By Rebecca Law, Media and PR officer

This was a bad week for older people’s bank balances as insurance giant, Aviva, reported that a quarter of those over 55 have to survive on £24 a day or less. The Real Retirement Report showed that older people are facing an increasing struggle to balance the rising cost of living with a small, and often fixed, income, little or no savings, low interest rates and large debts. Many older people consequently have been forced to cut back on basics such as food, as well as using their car less, buying fewer clothes and cancelling holidays.

Worryingly, 25% of the 10,000 people surveyed have just £500 or less saved in the bank, 40% save nothing each month, and 80% claimed to be “worried, concerned or terrified” about meeting potential future care costs.

The report highlights the importance of keeping up pressure on the government to act on the recent recommendations laid out by economist, Andrew Dilnot, in his Fairer Care Funding report. Millions of pensioners currently live in fear of incurring unlimited bills for care in later life. Dilnot’s suggestions will see a fairer split between the individual and the state to meet care costs, with a suggested cap on individual contribution of £35,000. Ministers are due to publish a white paper on their recommendations for care reform next April.

Thankfully, it’s not all doom and gloom out there. This was a good week for 81-year-olds Mary Lyness and John Akings. The pair, who were childhood sweethearts, lost touch when John joined the RAF at the age of 15. But, after 65 years apart, the couple reunited, and rekindled their relationship, through the internet.

Mary received an email from John after she was given a laptop for her birthday – their first contact for 65 years - and this week, tied the knot in West Yorkshire. Thrilled, Mary told the Daily Mail: “It makes us feel 21 again. It’s great that we found each other. I was so scared to meet him at first because I now have so many wrinkles, but my daughter said “he will have wrinkles too”. I’m so glad I met him because he’s still good looking, he always was.” Click here to read the full happy story.

This story comes in the wake of new research released this week by Age UK and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which shows that even though older people have come to the web more recently than younger people, they are using it to greater effect. That’s really positive news but the report does also highlight that despite this, there are still 5.7million older people who are not online.

It’s older people who have the most to gain by being online. Those who are not part of the e-world lose out on a great number of benefits, from keeping in touch with family and friends, saving money on goods, pursuing their own passions and hobbies and getting access to better services. Clearly we need to take steps to enable more older people technologically, by helping them to appreciate what technology can do for them. Whether they want to see pictures of their grandchildren, keep in touch with their family, download knitting patterns or identify wild birds, we need to tune into their interests, and help them see the benefits for themselves.

Friday 16 September 2011

Good week/bad week

By Rebecca Law, Media and PR officer

This was a good week for the millions of tons of food that are unnecessarily binned each year. Now, instead, it’s the sell-by dates that are hitting the scrap heap.

Just as producers will no longer be able to mislead customers into thinking their food is off, we got to thinking, isn’t it time we applied the same principle to older people too, who often, are considered to have a sell-by date of their own?

Time and again, we see evidence of ageism and discrimination across society. From the health service to the workplace, older people are treated as though they have a shelf life. In fact, far from being second-rate citizens, older people make a disproportionately large contribution to society – their volunteering alone was recently valued at £10billion a year and the free care they provided to their grandchildren helps contribute £4billion a year to the economy. They are a wealth of knowledge and experience and they can, do, and want to continue making a valuable contribution to society. So shouldn’t we include a shift in the way we label older people too?


This was a bad week for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after a Select Committee report claimed the regulator in charge of inspecting hospitals and care homes had “distorted” its priorities. The CQC has been focussing on registering providers, which in turn, has led to a 70% drop in the number of inspections it conducts to check care standards and safety. The report states that some hospitals are not even visited every two years if they are deemed to be low risk.

Perhaps then, we might be unsurprised by this morning’s news, that half our hospitals and care homes are failing to look after patients. This is even further evidence of neglect of older people in hospital wards and care homes and comes just months after another CQC report, which found evidence of older people being overlooked, left thirsty, or not given the assistance they need to eat while in hospital. We have to ask ourselves whether children or younger adults would ever be treated in this way. Ultimately, though, this neglect damages not just the patients but the healthcare system itself: poorer care means older people take longer to recover and are more likely to be readmitted. And that, in the end, will cost us all.

Monday 12 September 2011

How to find your perfect cup of tea...

By Harriet Steele, Community Fundraising Officer

Working on the Big Tea has made me think a lot more about the morning cuppa which I usually take for granted. How can some leaves in a bag fill me with such joy as I start the day?

As my interest in all things tea has grown, I took a friend along for her birthday to a recent tea-tasting workshop at Petersham Nurseries in Richmond.

Set in one of the many greenhouses, tables were laid out ready, with a tea bowl, tasting notes sheet and plates full of cake - which we resisted for as long as possible as it affects the tasting palate!

Jennifer Wood of the award winning Canton Tea Company (www.cantonteaco.com) introduced all the teas we tasted varying from the subtle flavours of the white teas to the more robust flavours of the Oolong teas. She divulged the truths and myths of tea and explained the tea production methods as well as to how to brew the perfect cup! Tea drinking will definitely never be the same again!

Jennifer has very kindly offered to support Independent Age and the Big Tea by running a tea-tasting workshop. If you like tea and would like to know more about this English tradition come along and sample a range of quality teas and learn about the production methods involved.

Date: 8 October 2011
Time:11am
Location: Petersham Nurseries, Church Lane, Off Petersham Road, Richmond, Surrey,TW10 7AG
Tickets: £10 for the talk and tea tasting or £25 to include a light lunch after the workshop

To book please contact Orla at Petersham Nurseries on 020 8605 3627 or email. info@petershamnurseries.com

For more information about Independent Age contact Harriet at or call 020 7605 4288.

Friday 9 September 2011

Good week/bad week

By Rebecca Law, Media and PR officer

This was a bad week for Wilf Cooper of Lockleaze in Bristol after his wife finally got wind of his double life. Contrary to what you may be thinking, this 90-year-old was not guilty of indulging in illicit trysts, gambling or drinking but of sneaking out and secretly running half marathons.

Wilf had already successfully completed six events behind his wife’s back – who believed Wilf to be watching the races from the sidelines - before being caught out by a neighbour who spotted him on TV. “He was in the doghouse that day,” says Mrs Cooper in an interview in the Daily Mail.

Despite his wife’s concern, the 90-year-old, who suffered a heart attack 20 years ago, is planning a swan song: he’ll be running one last time to raise money for St Peter’s Hospice.

As well as keeping himself super fit, Wilf clearly enjoys flexing his social media muscles too. He has his own JustGiving page here. If you’d like to see the full story, read it here.

This was a good week for Britons with a mortgage as record low interest rates mean that mortgage borrowers have shaved £51 billion off their payments since the bank rate hit 0.5% two and a half years ago. That is, of course, really positive news for many, since we’re all feeling the strain in the current economic climate, but it is, sadly, the silver lining of a rather grey cloud.

Those same low interest rates mean that savers – who outweigh the number of borrowers - are estimated to have lost out on £43billion in interest earnings in the same period. Pensioners, in particular, many of whom have paid off their mortgages – so don’t see the benefits that borrowers do - are reliant on the interest from their savings to live.

While borrowers celebrate their gain, pensioners are seeing their spending power slashed, especially when combined with high inflation rates (CPI rose to 4.4% in July). It’s a double whammy for pensioners who get the rawest deal with price rises since they typically spend more on things like electricity and fuel, which have seen eye-watering price hikes this year. You can read more about this here.

Friday 2 September 2011

Good week/bad week

Have this week’s events brought good news or bad for older people?

By Rebecca Law, Media and PR officer

This was a bad week for pensioners living on a fixed income as figures published by Prudential revealed that inflation cuts the real value of their funds by 60%. We have commented before on how pensioners are hit hardest by inflation, which is higher for food and fuel.

Older people need to keep their room temperatures higher than younger people to stay healthy and are also, perhaps because of problems with mobility, likely to spend a lot more time indoors, pushing the proportion of their income they spend on these up even further. In effect, this means, according to research by Age UK, that while average annual inflation recorded by the Retail Prices Index has been 3.1% a year since January 2008, pensioners have suffered annual inflation of 4.6%.

The figures lay bare the potential crisis we have on our hands since someone retiring this year on an annual income of £16,600, would find the same figure to be worth only £6,700 in 20 years time. You can read more about this in this Daily Express piece.

Still, this was at least a good week for James Bond, Jay Kay, Paris Hilton and anyone else with a soft spot for a stylish motor. Now, as you get older, you’ll no longer have to worry about trading style for practicality as 38-year-old engineer, Andrew Wylie, has created a range of mobility scooters modelled on some of our most iconic vehicles. Scooters which look like a Jeep and a classic Land Rover are apparently already on sale and “The Harley Davidson, particularly, is causing quite a stir”. At 8mph, the scooters, obviously, don’t have the speed of their full-size counterparts but does mean they’re ideal, as Wylie claims, “if you’re looking for a disability vehicle ...[that you] don’t need a licence to ride”. Check out this article in the Daily Mail to take a look.

Friday 26 August 2011

Good week/bad week

Have this week’s events brought good news or bad for older people?

By Rebecca Law, Media and PR officer

It was a bad week for hospitals as the Patients Association revealed that two out of three patients are not being checked for signs of malnutrition. We were really disappointed at the news, which comes just months after the CQC had found evidence of neglect amongst older hospital patients, with them being overlooked, left thirsty and not given the assistance they need to eat.

We all know that food and water are the basics of care and are vital to rest and recuperation, yet somehow they are still going amiss in our NHS. Staff need to engage properly with their patients to ensure they are being properly looked after – individuals have individual problems and conditions like arthritis or problems with sight can make things like eating and pouring a drink much more difficult for some older people. If staff don’t pay enough attention to the needs of their patients, these things can fall under the radar, leaving older people – and others –entering a downward spiral towards malnutrition and further ill health.

According to Age UK, malnourished patients stay an average of 5-10 days longer in hospital, so overlooking these basic checks is not just damaging to the patients, it does us all a disservice - it’ll be the collective whole who finds ourselves footing the bill further down the line.

This is a good week for over sixties with a problem weighing on their mind. New research from the University of Texas has shown that 'wisdom really does come with age'. According to an article which ran in the Daily Telegraph this week, previous studies, which suggest decision-making ability declines with age, were 'biased against older brains'. The new findings show that younger people veer towards making choices that lead to immediate rewards, while older people tend to take a more measured, strategic approach to decision-making which takes the longer-term into account.

Friday 19 August 2011

Good week/bad week

Have this week’s events brought good news or bad for older people?

By Rebecca Law, Media and PR officer

Bad week: It looks like it’s a case of hard cheese for those looking forward to a bacon sandwich at the weekend. The cost of living in Britain was laid bare this week with the consumer price index showing staggering price increases compared with this time last year. With the price of flour up 40%, butter up 12.9% and back bacon up 9.2%, it looks like our porcine weekend treat might just be enough to break the piggy bank.

The sharp increases in not just food, but clothes, transport and energy bills caused the CPI to increase to 4.4% this July. We’ll all feel the effects of these price rises, but it’s older people, who typically find themselves living on either fixed or declining incomes, who will be hardest hit.

According to an article in The Telegraph this week, those aged between 65 and 74 are most exposed to petrol, electricity and food price rises, while those of 75 and over will suffer most once the new double-digit energy price hikes come into effect later this month.

This was however a good week for Scotland’s oldest woman, Janet Roberts, who marked her 110th birthday. Janet is the granddaughter of William Grant, the creator of Glenfiddich, making her the matriarch of the Scottish whisky industry, and meaning that she quite literally has whisky in the blood.

Could Janet be living proof that a little tipple does us no harm? Perhaps, but Janet, who, determined to prove herself in a typically male-dominated society by studying at two universities and persuing a legal career, attributes her longevity to “hard work and moderation” - perhaps not quite the response that some might have been hoping for. If you would like to learn more about Janet’s history, here’s the full article .

Friday 12 August 2011

Good week/bad week

Have this week’s events brought good news or bad for older people?

Director of Policy, Simon Bottery, is dismayed by the riots that swept the country this week; Media and PR officer, Rebecca Law, counts just how many happy returns we may be in store for.

This was a bad week for, well, just about anyone who lives in one of our major cities. The rioting and looting seen in London, Manchester and elsewhere caused despair to those directly and indirectly affected. In Tottenham 89-year-old Aaron Biber saw the barbershop that he'd run for 41 years totally destroyed. Well wishers have since raised £5000 to help him back into business.

As the week progressed it turned into a bad week for some of the rioters too. Swift arrests and sentences saw many, including care workers and teaching assistants, facing the consequences of their actions. In Manchester, 30-year-old Daniel Bell pleaded guilty to stealing a Macmillan Cancer Relief collecting tin from a looted branch of Maplin, an act the judge described as 'the most despicable and contemptible I have had to deal with all day'.

Despite the gloom, anger and fear, there was some good news to be found: this was a good week for youngsters who have a penchant for birthday parties as the Department for Work and Pensions released figures highlighting that one in three girls and one in four boys born today will live to 100.

Still, the good news does bring with it more than just the issue of how to fit 100 candles on the birthday cake: Gordon Burns would have a field day with that little Krypton Factor challenge (a joke there, for those of us who are a slightly further along on our journey to 100).

I don’t mean to rain on the parade but there are some out there who have gone so far as to describe the news as a “time bomb”. It does of course bring with it issues about how we are going to support an ageing population given the current budget deficit and an already pending pensions crisis. Certainly, Andrew Dilnot’s suggestions in his report of 4 July this year already go some way in offering sensible solutions to the future funding of long-term care; so long as the Coalition is prepared to take heed – and action.

Just for a moment though, can’t we do away with the pessimism and just embrace the fact that those born today are over 40 times more likely to turn 100 than those born a century ago? Yes, we’ll need to look at how to ensure that people are not just reaching old age, but a good old age. But just think of the difference the news would have made to those only three generations before us, who counted themselves lucky to reach their fiftieth.

Friday 5 August 2011

Good week/bad week

Have this week’s events brought good news or bad for older people?

By Rebecca Law, Media and PR Officer

This was a bad week in the bus world according to an update from the Campaign for Better Transport. Tens of thousands of pensioners could be left without transport as 72% of local authorities target buses as a means of making savings. The cuts mean that hundreds of routes are being axed and the number of services slashed.

The news will be a real blow for thousands of older people, who, without their own transport are reliant on the bus network. It’s particularly bad news for those in rural areas where links are already poor. Access to public transport allows older people to continue leading active lives and to stay linked with their local community, when they might otherwise struggle to get out and about. While we accept that councils have to save money, we believe, with moves like this, they are targeting the wrong things. Cutting bus routes would have the worst impact on those who need them most and will simply leave a greater number of older people cut off.

National and local government needs to be much more joined up. It makes no sense for central government to require councils to give all pensioners a free bus pass, while at the same time allowing them to withdraw subsidies from the very routes that the most isolated older people will be using.

It’s a good week for all the 90-year olds out there who happen to have adopted a Stone Age diet since their thirties. According to Michael Rose, a professor of evolutionary biology, you can halt the ageing process for the next few years and enter a stage of “coasting” where the body won’t face any new problems beyond those already present. Sounds good – if a little like a Gulliver’s Travels narrative plot. But other experts remain sceptical claiming that “Professor Rose [has] dismissed solid evidence into the causes of ageing...it is misleading to hold out the hope that something remarkable happens to arrest ageing very late in life...” So, perhaps for now, the jury’s out, but, as they say, the proof is in the pudding, so for those who would like to give it a go for themselves, the full article is here: http://t.co/xposrzW

Friday 29 July 2011

Good week/bad week

Have this week’s events brought good news or bad for older people?

By Rebecca Law, Media and PR Officer

This has been a good week for Centrica’s shareholders, after the company’s dividend was increased by 12%. This follows the news of £1.3billion profits in the first half of the year for the energy giant which owns British Gas.

This may anger British Gas customers who will justifiably feel this has been a bad week since they face increases in their gas and electricity bills of 18% and 16% respectively from mid-August. The increases are particularly bad news for older people, the majority of whom live on fixed or declining incomes.

Centrica’s explanation for the price hikes is that, while the figures may look good, British Gas profits are in fact down 54% in the first half, so, as they claim, if they didn’t increase gas and electricity prices in the second half, their profit could be entirely wiped out, or they might even run at a loss. This will however be of little comfort to all those currently living in fuel poverty – and the increasing number who will be pushed into it as a result of the price hikes. It may be an over simplistic way of looking at it, but profits of £1.3billion can hardly be considered negligible, so British Gas shouldn’t expect sympathy from their customers any time soon.

The pain may however be muted, if only a little, by those with pension funds - many of which contain British Gas shares. Whether this small gain will compensate for the almost eye-watering increases in energy prices, however, is questionable.

Friday 22 July 2011

Good week/bad week

Have this week’s events brought good news or bad for older people?

By Rebecca Law, Media and PR Officer

Bad week:
We were left feeling cold this week as we found out that nearly half of all households in fuel poverty contain someone aged 60 or over. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) released its 2011 fuel poverty statistics showing that fuel poor households in 2009 had risen by a whopping 1 million in the UK (from 4.5 million to 5.5million) since 2008.

And the bad news was compounded – for older people and for all – as Scottish and Southern Energy rubbed salt into the wound by becoming the third major UK energy suppliers to announce double digit price increases.

Older people will be particularly hard hit by the changes. They have to keep their room temperatures higher than younger people to stay healthy, and are likely to spend a lot more time indoors. But when caught out by by rising bills, a reduction in their winter fuel payment and changing eligibility criteria of the Warm Front scheme, it’s going to be a long, hard winter in which they may find themselves cutting back on other basics or risking the cold.

Good week:
Better news this week as Age UK announced they are teaming up with the NHS Confederation and Local Government Group to launch the Partnership on Dignity in Care. The commission, which aims to improve the dignity in care provided to older people, will hear from nurses, doctors, patient representatives and leaders across the health and social care. It follows far too many examples of neglect and ageism in our hospitals and care homes (some, not all, of course). It’s a step in the right direction.

Friday 15 July 2011

Good week/bad week

Have this week’s events brought good or bad news for older people?

By Rebecca Law, Media and PR Officer

This was a bad week for Southern Cross residents as the company finally posted the keys through the letterbox and walked away. The firm lost its battle against huge rental bills and cuts in fees from local authorities. Southern Cross promised there would be an “orderly closure of the group’s affairs”. The Department of Health has promised that no one will find themselves homeless or without care, but the events still leave staff, thousands of residents and their families facing uncertainty and anxiety.

This was a good week for cheque users as the Payments Council announced it was bowing to people pressure and abandoning its plans to withdraw cheques by 2018. Many groups who are still reliant on the payment method, including older or housebound people, small businesses, schools and charities, breathed a huge sigh of relief. The media are speculating however whether the move is just a stay of execution, especially given that the guarantee card was axed just two weeks ago. There are also concerns that disproportionately high fees could be attached to cheque usage. But for now at least, the concerned parties have a reprieve (as do the excuse-makers who can still say “your cheque’s in the post!”).

Friday 8 July 2011

Good week/bad week

Welcome to our new, regular Friday feature Good week/bad week: a round-up of how the week is looking for older people.

Good week for economists: Andrew Dilnot's thoughtful review single-handedly raised the reputation of a much maligned group of academics this week, not to mention offering a glimmer of hope to thousands of people by reducing the anxieties that many feel about paying for care in later life. The suggested cap on the amount someone should pay for social care (around £35,000 or no more than 30% of their assets) is a much clearer way for people to know in advance how much they might be expected to pay. We don't agree with every single word (not quite convinced by the “granny tax” idea) but the almost universally positive response to the report made George Osborne's apparent intent to kick it into touch that much harder (and gave economists a temporary reprieve as we all have a bona fide reason to hold on the jokes about them, for now at least anyway.)

Bad week for Elaine McDonald and what her case says for the potential care of older people. The 68-year-old disabled ex-ballerina was denied the right for an overnight carer to help her use her commode following a stroke. Instead, she has been left to use incontinence pads overnight even though she is not incontinent. Elaine herself described the decision to be an "intolerable affront to her dignity". We have to ask ourselves, if going to the toilet is now regarded as a privilege in our overstretched social care system, what on earth are they going to cut next? We have to decide whether, as a society, we would rather have our older friends, parents and grandparents in incontinence pads, because we are not prepared to face the question of how best to pay for care. This is a clear warning of what care and support will become if the coalition fails to act on Andrew Dilnot’s recommendations.

Tuesday 31 May 2011

The Final Countdown

By Claire Nurden, Research and Policy Officer

Of all the challenges that Dilnot has faced in his review of social care over the past year, the final key decision seems to have boiled down to this: do we or do we not compel people to contribute to the potential future costs of their social care?

General speculation has certainly pointed in the direction of an insurance scheme to help people protect themselves against the cost of future care and support needs, but as the ABI suggests, the general public currently have little awareness of the need, or indeed willingness, to pay into a scheme of this sort, especially if a state funded option is available as a safety net.

A serious anomaly exists here. Without making contributions to an insurance scheme for social care compulsory, the most effective incentive to encourage people to sign up is to make the state funded option unattractive. But not only would this be unfair to people that have been forced to rely on the state funded option as a result of financial hardship, but deliberately constructing a sub-standard system of social care is unacceptable, if not immoral, in a civilised society.

Friday 13 May 2011

Plastic fantastic

By Claire Nurden
Research and Policy Officer

Apologies in advance for ranting about this! But is it any wonder so many women resort to surgery? Two articles in the Daily Mail this morning, one describing a 68-year-old, dare I say it, natural, Jean Shrimpton as “grey-haired, prim, and almost severe”, while the other proclaims “Sexier than ever at 73”, and plasters photos of Jane Fonda’s surgically enhanced face and body across the page.

There are a hundred different issues here, but I’ll try and keep it brief. The first thing that springs to mind is how dangerous it is for us to constantly uphold images of beauty in older age that depend almost entirely on expensive, and invasive, surgeries to hold back the years. But moreover, I have to ask, why are we so ashamed about showing our age in the first place? What is everyone so afraid of? It is sad to think that so often older people are not judged by their achievements, but how effectively they have erased the markings of the experience that makes them who they are. Lines are simply the signs of having a life, and if we’re lucky we’ll make it to our later years, so why deny it? If nothing else we will save ourselves a huge amount of money.

Hmm I really hope I don’t change my mind about all of this when I get to 40...

Monday 9 May 2011

Are you ageless and amortal?

By Claire Nurden, Research and Policy Officer

Interesting piece in the Mail this morning. Sitting right at the top of the gossip column, at first glance it seems like yet another article feeding the public’s fascination with looking younger (note the photos of cosmetically enhanced Demi Moore). But on closer inspection the message is actually very different. While yes, some of the discussion is about how we look, it goes on to recognise that looking ageless is more than skin deep, and that more and more men and women are now challenging the stereotypes they are faced with in their older age – and reaping the rewards.

Granted, the fact that they have led with the headline, “Can you believe this woman is 65?” (and some of the less than pleasant reader comments!), is evidence of how far we have to go in terms of challenging ageist ideas of later life in this country, but as a whole it does seem like a positive step in the right direction.

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Multitasking Myths

By Claire Nurden
Research and Policy Officer

Now I’m no scientist, so I can’t question the validity of the research findings on older people’s ability to multitask, which have been widely reported in today’s media. But we can question the nature of the reporting of these findings, and the skewed impression it gives about people’s capabilities in their later years.

The headlines (unsurprisingly) seize on the evidence that older brains are ‘less nimble’ in their ability to deal with more than one situation at once, and that the ability to multitask ‘wanes’ with age. But surely the point here is not how many tasks you do at once, but how well you can do them. The added skills and experience many older people bring to bear on the situations they are faced with could, in fact, counter any supposed decline in pure processing ability. This point is made very strongly in the recent Lewis Wolport book on ageing.

While some changes in brain functions might occur as we age, we shouldn’t be reporting this as if it was the only thing – or even the most important thing – about getting older.

Monday 11 April 2011

Keeping Mum

by Rebecca Law, Media and PR officer

It is reported that 750,000 people in the UK have dementia and 12% of the adult population in the UK are carers. Those are quite staggering statistics, so it's really touching to see Marianne Talbot's first hand account as one of those living with and caring for a dementia sufferer in her book, Keeping Mum, published today by Hay House. In it, Marianne has candidly chronicled the five years that she took in and looked after her mother following her dementia diagnosis in 2003.

The topic may sound dour, but Marianne handles it with real compassion and even humour, taking us on a full emotional journey as we watch them both face the daily challenges brought on by her mother's illness. You can feel Marianne's frustrations as well as the profound love she obviously has for her mother. It's got some pretty handy practical tips too, covering daily living, managing others' finances, and the social care system. For more information visit www.keepingmum.org.uk.

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Cautious welcome to green paper plans to simplify pensions

by Simon Bottery, Director of Fundraising, Policy and Communications

At last the coalition has published its pensions green paper, to generally positive response. Most commentators - including Independent Age - have given a cautious welcome to the plans to simplify the current system. For us, the fact that a third of today's pensioners are not claiming the means-tested element of the pension means that the current system has failed and needs reform. However we should be careful about at least two elements of the green paper.

Firstly, the very complexity of the current system is hampering attempts to understand what is proposed by way of reform. At the moment even pensions analysts are struggling to understand how the new proposals for a more generous flat rate pension can be achieved without either costing more or having some 'losers' as well as gainers. As one Conservative MP asked us, 'if cost neutral, who loses?' Or as the GMB union puts it with more hostility, 'the real question is what the government is taking away, not what it's promising to provide'.

At this stage, probably only the government itself (and particularly the impressive pensions minister Steve Webb) has the data, analytical capacity and understanding of the current proposals to answer this question, but it will become clearer. The second reason we should be cautious is that the green paper does not propose a flat rate pension outright but as an 'option' and it also suggests an alternative, which is essentially a speeding up of plans to phase out the current second pension.

Amid all the headlines about a £155 flat rate pension for all, this option has rather been overlooked. It may be, though, that the cautious heads inside the Treasury and elsewhere see this as their banker bet if the flat rate idea runs into problems.

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Are we losing our Marples?

By Rebecca Law, Media and PR Officer.

What’s this we hear of Disney casting 38-year-old Jennifer Garner as Miss Marple - one of Agatha Christie’s best-loved characters who was apparently based, in part, on the author’s own grandmother?

Is it not Miss Marple’s age and all of the lighthearted stereotypes that go with it, which make her so delightfully implausible as a detective; that aside from the knitting and the weeding she is able to use her life experience to scupper police officers half her age and beat them at their own game? Take away those salient qualities and, sadly, Miss Marple is no longer herself – she quite literally loses her Marples. Joking aside, by denying us one of our few remaining older role models, Disney is making a grave mistake. Not only is the decision laughable, it highlights a serious unwillingness to accept and honour older age and suggests that it might be unreasonable to subject audiences to the exploits of an older, less than physically perfect, heroine.


Thursday 24 March 2011

The mystery of IDS' flat rate pensions speech is now solved! #budget11

by Simon Bottery, Director of Fundraising, Policy and Communications

So now we know the solution to the mystery of Iain Duncan Smith's missing speech. He shelved the announcement of a flat rate pension at the Age UK conference because he didn't want to/was not allowed to steal the Chancellor's Budget thunder.

Except that the sound turned out to be not so much thunder as the vague echo of music we've already heard. Once again the government said little beyond the fact that it was considering the options, adding that any scheme would not apply to current pensioners. The figure of £140 was quoted again but without any clue as to whether this was at today's prices or some future date. So what on earth is going on? I don't pretend to know, but on this evidence you can expect the next installment to come not in any official way but as an unattributable briefing to a Sunday paper. Government by spin, anybody?

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Officials search Whitehall for rest of Iain Duncan Smith's pensions speech to Age UK conference #af11

by Simon Bottery, Director of Fundraising, Policy and Communications

Officials are hunting all over Whitehall for the second half of Iain Duncan Smith's speech on pensions to the Age UK conference yesterday. The Work and Pensions Secretary was supposed to announce a £140 flat rate pension, heavily trailed in that morning's media. But after a promising opening to the speech, the minister simply called for an open debate on pensions reform and sat down. It is now believed that the second half of the speech was blown out of an open taxi window on the way to the conference, or was eaten by the dog, or spontaneously combusted - no one is quite sure.

Sceptics have raised other, unrealistic possibilities for the missing content. Some have said that it was spiked by the Treasury, which still isn't convinced that the proposal will cost nothing (you can see where they're coming from - administration savings are somehow supposed to pay for a 40% increase for most pensioners and a 10% increase for those currently getting the pension credit top up). Others suggest that the Chancellor loves the idea but wants to have a share of the announcement of it.

A shame. As IDS said in the half of the speech he was able to deliver, the current system is so complex that no one knows what they are going to get, which hardly encourages retirement planning. And since a third of those eligible for pension credit don't claim it, the system allows hundreds of thousands of older people to live in poverty needlessly. So the time for reform is long overdue. Looks like we may have to wait just a little longer for that speech to be found before we can see what type of reform the coalition intends.

Friday 4 March 2011

New Campaign Encouraging People in the North West to Seek an Early Dementia Diagnosis

We’re welcoming today’s launch of a new Department of Health pilot campaign in the North West, and Yorkshire and the Humber, to help people recognise the signs and symptoms of dementia and urging them to seek advice from their GP.

According to the campaign, there is an estimated 82,661 people living with dementia in the North West, over half of whom are undiagnosed and are consequently missing out on access to treatment and support which could help improve their independence and quality of life.

It can be tough, or even frightening, to admit that you, or someone close to you, might be suffering from dementia. Or you might just not be aware of the signs, but the sooner you discuss it and seek help, the better, since, as the campaign highlights, early diagnosis is key to enabling people to access advice, information and support from social services, voluntary agencies and support groups.

For further information on how to recognise the signs and symptoms of dementia, visit: www.nhs.uk/dementia

Thursday 3 February 2011

Run the Royal Parks Half Marathon with us 9 October 2011


photo by thadz from http://www.sxc.hu/

We have ten places available this year torun the Royal Parks Half Marathon in London this October. Applications willl be accepted for Independent Age Gold Bond Places from March 2011 and successful applicants will be informed by the end of May. We ask runners for a deposit of £50 and to pledge to raise at least £250 for Independent Age. To register interest or to receive a Golden Bond application form, please email events@independentage.org.uk or call Harriet on 020 7605 4288.

If you're after a challenge that's more artistic than athletic, the Royal Parks Foundation have launched a competition to design their official 2011 Royal Parks Half Marathon race shirt.

Details on the competition can be found here: http://www.royalparkshalf.com/runners/running-kit/

The competition closes at noon on Thursday, 10 February 2011, so you'd better (ahem) race to get your entries in.

Sorry, that was terrible. But good luck to you all.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Scams Awareness Month



The Office of Fair Trading has declared February 2011 Scams Awareness Month, and we're glad to spread the word, since older people are the most common victims of scams.

It's not just older people who are affected, though: nearly half of the UK population has been targeted by scams, and more than three million adults - 6.5% of the adult population - fall victim to scams, losing £3.5 billion per year.

To help stop the scammers, the Office of Fair Trading has produced a 'scambuster' guide that explains some of the most common scams (clairvoyants and psychics, email bank account transfer scams, pyramid schemes, etc) and how to avoid them. You can also find out more from the Office of Fair Trading website.

Campaign to End Loneliness launches today


The Campaign to End Loneliness launches today, 1 February 2011. The campaign, a collaborative effort between Independent Age, Age UK Oxfordshire, Counsel and Care, and WRVS and funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, aims to fight loneliness and isolation in older people.

Although research suggests that loneliness is a greater threat to health than obesity, and as bad as lifelong smoking, fewer than 1 in 5 people have ever seen or heard information about loneliness as a health risk, and fewer than 1 in 3 who work in health and social care professions have.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of the risks of loneliness and to make sure they are treated as a serious risk to public health.

A report, Safeguarding the Convoy, is also published today to accompany the campaign, and calls for others to join and take action to end loneliness in order to future proof forthcoming generations of older people against it.

Visit http://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org.uk/ for more information or to download a copy of the report.

Thursday 13 January 2011

Trustees wanted at Independent Age

We are looking for two new Trustees, covering the areas of Volunteering and Corporate Relations. Trustees will serve a three-year term starting in May 2011, and applications are due by 31 January. Click here to apply or to learn more about the posts.

Monday 10 January 2011

Lancashire county council publishes scary details of cuts to its care services



by Simon Bottery, Director of Fundraising, Policy and Communications

Lancashire county council has just published its budget, outlining in detail how it plans to cut a quarter of its spending - £179m - over the next three years. For older people using care services it makes scary reading.

The direct savings for 2011 alone include:
  • £2.5m by raising the eligibility threshold for adult social care from 'moderate' to 'substantial'. The council has 3,900 people currently assessed as 'moderate' so their care is now at risk.
  • £1.5m in reducing spending on non-residential social care - a cut of up to 20% in spending on domiciliary care, day care and personal budget. Instead there will be 'greater reliance on universal, preventative and low-level initiatives', 'greater use of telecare' and more focus on 'rehabilitation, reablement and recovery services'
  • £1.5m cuts in its Supporting People programme of housing support for vulnerable adults

  • £1.85m cuts in social-care assessment and management staff costs, leading to a 'delay in non-urgent social work assessments'
  • £4.2m in increased charges for non-residential care services meaning that some people will pay between £30.75 and £53.80 per day for services that are currently costing them £5. The council estimates that the largest group of users affected will be 5,000 who will pay £11.63 more each week.

There are other savings that will have less obvious but potentially drastic effects on services too:

  • £1.5m cut from social care training

  • £7m saved by reducing the fees paid by the council to care providers. This means organisations providing social care will see their fees cut by 2 percent in 2010. The council says, surely optimistically, that this 'should not affect overall levels of service'.

The council is making cuts across the board, from environment to children's services. You can read its plans in full at http://council.lancashire.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=1051

Across the country, other councils are gearing up to do similar things to Lancashire. Hackney Council in London, for example, is cutting £46m over the next two years. Adult Social Care is being hit by cutting drop-in centres and residential units, and day care is being reduced. Contracts for outsourced services are also being reduced. Staffing levels are being reviewed.

Not all these changes are necessarily bad. The emphasis on reablement and preventative work is welcome, while telecare has potential if the need for social contact is met in other ways. Nonetheless, it has been hard to see this as anything but a major reduction in service provision. For all the coalition government's statements that councils have been funded to maintain social care funding, this is the reality of the average 27% cuts they face over the next four years

Happy New Year.