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.

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...

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.