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.

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.