Wood and trees

The recent and ongoing row between the government and scientists over the danger levels of various narcotic substances serves as a sharp reminder that in respect of most social issues our leaders just don’t seem able to see the bigger picture and grasp what’s really at stake. There’s a tendency to become embroiled in table-thumping and tantrums about completely the wrong thing. In this case it surely doesn’t matter whether ecstasy or cannabis is more or less dangerous than something or other else, what matters is that we live in a society where drug-taking and alcohol abuse is endemic, so what needs addressing are issues of cultural change. This inability to see the wood for the trees doesn’t seem to be a political thing, policy makers of all denominations and from all sorts of organisations seem to have difficulty identifying and addressing what the real problems are and devoting resources to the areas where they might actually make a difference.

Certainly this is the case with issues surrounding older workers. In the next year or so there’s going to be a massive amount of disagreement, argument and petulance over whether or not the default retirement age should be abolished. Although I believe it should, I also believe that actually it misses the point. What matters is fundamental attitudinal change on the part of employers, workers themselves and society as a whole that older people have continuing right to work for as long as they want or need to and shouldn’t be discriminated against on the basis of ‘age’. What a shame all that energy and publicity won’t be seen as furthering that cause.

A grey day for Heyday? Not in the longer term.

And so the “Heyday” case has finally drawn to a conclusion with seemingly disappointing results. Even in its final battle Heyday was destined to be a loser and its (poorly chosen) name will thankfully fade away into history. Let’s hope the new merged charity sticks to its knitting and does not make the same mistakes again. However, that is another story – for another day.

On the surface the outcome of the Heyday case is unhelpful, certainly to those who have had age discrimination cases pending. Much has already been written in the press about the case and we don’t wish to go over this ground again. The judge took a particular standpoint based largely on a historical perspective and this has let the government off the hook, at least in the short term. However, moving forward, it will clear the air and allow fresh and proper thinking instead of continued attempts to justify the previously taken, and very weak, position.

The demographics are moving one way only. The financial concerns of our older citizens and of government are moving one way only. And the skills needs of industry, business and employers at large are moving one way only. The debate can, therefore, move in one direction only. Nevertheless, it has to remain top of the agenda and we applaud all of those organisations which are fighting and lobbying to bring about the necessary changes, sooner rather than later.

We, at in my prime, have a slightly different perspective. We are more concerned with the next phase. How are employers going to manage their older workforces? How are individuals of any age going to plan for the rest of their lives, find the right balance between work and non-work, and determine the necessary stepping stones? And how are employers, employees and government going to work together to find solutions which are in the best interests of all concerned?

The Heyday judgement is just a temporary setback – but nothing in this life worth having comes easy.

itea and Biscuits week and ‘Internet Champion Search’!

Age Concern and Help the Aged are looking for an Internet Champion to represent the charity and provide a leading light for the estimated 6.4 million people 65+ who have never used the internet, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

Many older people never have the chance to use the Internet, despite new research from Age Concern and Help the Aged finding that older people see the benefit of the internet with three in four people believing it to be a useful tool to stay in contact with friends and family (ICM survey 11-18 September 2009). The research also found that 61% of older people believe the internet to be a useful way of making savings on products and services.

The Internet Champion – who will be a regular older person who has embraced the internet – will show older people that using the internet is a realistic possibility for them and that they too can reap the benefits of being online.

The winner of the Internet Champion search will receive a laptop computer, a complete BT package including BT Total Broadband, as well as an all-expenses paid trip to London. For more information visit www.ageconcern.org.uk/it.

itea and biscuits week, supported by BT, offers older people nationwide the opportunity to get involved in technology ’taster sessions’ at local Age Concerns and other supporting organisations from September 21 to 25.

What is a regular older person?

The Internet Champion search aims to find an ordinary person (aged 55+) who has recently learned to use the internet and whose personal story can inspire others. The search will begin on 21 September 2009 and end on 13 November 2009 with the winner being selected by a panel of judges from Age Concern and Help the Aged. To apply, candidates will need to fill in the Internet Champion application form which can be downloaded from www.ageconcern.org.uk/it.

 

Dumb, depressed and drunk?

An interesting piece of research floated past the radar this morning. Apparently a recent University of Michigan study of several thousand “seniors” found that those in the US performed significantly better than their counterparts in England on standard tests of memory and cognitive function. The study is the first known international comparison of cognitive function in nationally representative samples of older adults in the United States and England. It revealed that the overall difference in cognitive performance between the two countries was quite large – approaching the magnitude associated with about 10 years of ageing. In other words, the cognitive performance of 75-year-olds in the U.S. was as good, on average, as that of 65-year-olds in England.

The reasons why this may be are numerous and require further investigation. However the indicators are that a number of factors may play a part: First, higher levels of education and net worth in the United States accounted for some of the better cognitive performance; second, U.S. adults reported significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms than English adults (unlike Brits, they seek medication if they are depressed), and this may have accounted for some of the U.S. advantage in brain health since depression is linked with worse cognitive functioning; and third, significant differences in alcohol consumption between the U.S. and English seniors may play a role with more than 50 percent of U.S. seniors reporting no alcohol use, compared to only 15.5 percent of English seniors. Previous research has shown that moderate alcohol consumption, compared to abstinence, is linked with better cognition among those aged 50 and over.

Interesting links and interesting messages. Okay, maybe we can’t do much about our existing levels of education and net worth in later years, but keeping the brain active, keeping involved, interested and in the mainstream to stave off depression (and perhaps seeking treatment if it does occur), and cutting back on alcohol are all things which are possible and achievable. If it helps keep the brain ticking over that much better in later old age surely it’s got to be worth the effort.

More about the study at http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/553659/

Save the last dance

For once a great TV programme about older people last night (in Alan Yentob’s BBC2 Imagine series) presented in a way that was neither patronising nor voyeuristic. The programme followed the Sadlers Wells Company of Elders Contemporary Dance troupe – a group of 25 or so ordinary men and women of average age 79 - through their preparations for a new dance performance at Sadlers Wells.

Not only were the dancers themselves entertaining and inspirational, but their commitment, attitude and sheer bonhomie was a joy to behold. Better still the audience who watched their eventual performance were obviously moved, as had been their choreographer. Not by the fact that older people can dance, but by the extra element their life experiences added to their performance, underlying that dance is not just about physical beauty and accuracy but also about creativity and soul.

Definitely worth tracking down if you missed it even if you’re not a great dance afficionado. Next week’s programme topic also bodes well: David Hockney at age 70. Watch that space.

Play it again Sam – all older people are not the same

I’ve been catching up on news reports about the European Court of Justice’s recent ruling that the UK’s default retirement age is legitimate.

John Cridland, Deputy Director of the CBI lauded the decision as “a victory for commonsense”, commenting that “Some people can happily work in their existing job beyond the age of 65, but this is not possible for all occupations”.

He went on to state that “companies with small numbers of staff have particular problems adapting jobs to the needs of older workers”.

This is a hugely disappointing and massively short-sighted reaction from an organization that should provide a better example and think more responsibly. For a start we now work in a largely service-based economy rather than one based on manufacturing and heavy manual labour. Even in the manufacturing sector, mechanisation means that aspects of many jobs can be far less physically arduous than in the past. So the “some” people he talks about as being able to happily work in their existing jobs is probably the majority. Second, what “needs of older workers” is he referring to? Yes, the minority of manual workers described above may have a need for lighter or supervisory work but the needs of most of the rest of us can be dealt with on an individual basis e.g. stronger spectacles for fading eyesight. Other problems we may have e.g. back trouble, tiredness, can occur in other individuals also, they are not the sole prerogative of those who are older.

The overarching need of many (but again, not all) over 65s - in increasing numbers – is simply the need to be able to continue to work to secure their financial future. What this means is a need to be treated equally with younger employees and a need to be trained and developed in order to be able to respond to opportunities and keep pace with workplace developments.

Yet again, sweeping statements are applied to a group which is not homogenous. It sounds like a typical “I’m alright Jack” statement by someone who ought to know better.

Tax free flexible work for the over 65s.

Consultant director of think tank Reform, Professor Nick Bosanquet, has called on the Government to scrap tax on employed over 65 year olds to encourage older people to continue working into retirement.

Speaking at Standard Life’s The Death of Retirement conference on Feb 4^th, Bosanquet suggested that in the current economic climate older people would struggle to stay in the labour market. He said: “We are going to have a period of low interest rates which have already reduced the income and consumption of pensions and we are going to have a period in which there is job rationing in the labour market. Against that background how do we incentivise people to stay in work? My key change would be to make work after 65 virtually tax-free.”

At the same conference his colleague, Reform Director Andrew Haldenby, said that the government needed to do more to encourage people to take control of their retirement and be more active while the Conservative party’s pensions spokesman, Nigel Waterstone MP, called for pensions in the UK to be made more flexible.

All of these approaches are laudable but a combined onslaught of change on numerous fronts is urgently required if any real progress is to be made. Mandatory retirement ages need to be scrapped so that older individuals can neither be forced out of the workplace nor made redundant at 65 plus. Flexible working should also be introduced alongside flexible pensions. And a programme of education about the meaning and implications of pensions and retirement should be introduced to enlighten both employers and employees themselves – from an early age.

The tipping point – we are there!

When we set up in my prime we thought that our main point of focus was on the 50 to 75 year old section of the population which was clearly not elderly but was perceived so by the rest of the universe and, indeed, many members of that generation themselves. In consequence the legend we attached to our name was “in my prime – for mature people re-thinking their lives”.

This is still very much our area of activity but it is now quite obvious that if we wait for people to reach that magic age of 50 or thereabouts it is likely to be too late to put into place the groundwork necessary for that part of our lives to be truly “in our prime”.

The demographics have been heading only one way for some years now but, we believe, government, employers, and individuals themselves have been in denial hoping the problem will go away, won’t affect us personally, or somehow will be someone else’s problem, despite some introductory measures such as Age Discrimination legislation. It is quite apparent that none of these is true and that the march of time has finally caught up with us. It has also been brought into very clear perspective by the arrival of the credit crunch and the recession. To roll together a couple of very apt quotations, “Only when the tide goes out can you see the rocks on the sea bed or who’s swimming naked”.

House prices have fallen, pension funds have been depleted, savings levels have dropped and jobs are disappearing. All at a time when we can expect to live longer and longer. The issue, therefore, does not relate solely to those who are in their prime but also to anyone who hopes at some stage to reach that position – it is an issue for us for all of our working lives – from the beginning to the end, and beyond.

Here now we provide an analysis of the latest official UK statistics which show just what is happening and will be happening.

The period from 1971 to 2007 has seen the UK population grow from 56 million to 61 million, that is overall quite slowly, but it is now forecast to continue increasing at the rate of about 2 million every 5 years reaching 71 million by 2031. However, these figures mask a range of changes taking place and issues arising within these figures.

The number of children required per woman to keep the population steady is 2.1 but the present rate, although rising from an all time low in 2001 of 1.6, is only 1.9 (2007), on its own suggesting a drop in population. The increase is coming from people living longer and from a net migration inwards. The increase from 2007 to 2031 is reckoned to be 47% due to net migration and 53% due to net natural change. As a result of the low birth rate we will see fewer young people entering the potential workforce pool.

Despite the current recession, which we have to assume we will come out of, the implications of this looking into the future are: skills shortages; initiatives to bring more women into/back into the workplace; increased numbers of workers from other countries; the need to retain older workers.

With lower birth rates and greater longevity we see that, within the total UK population figure there is a huge shift in demographics. In 1971 nearly 7 in 10 were under 50 and 3 in 10 were 50 plus. By 2031 the proportion of those over 50 will have reached nearly 4 in 10. Currently, slightly over one third of our sixty million people are over 50, that is in excess of 20 million.

At the end of 2008 it was headlined in some newspapers that we are now a nation of pensioners. The reason is that for the first time the numbers of those reaching state pension age (65 for men and 60 for women) had overtaken, just, those who are under 16, the percentages being about 19% of the population for each.

Hence, we are about to see the first of the measures coming in, starting in 2010, to try to redress the balance, particularly in respect of the demands on the public purse. Between 2010 and 2020 the state pension age for women will be increased until it reaches 65, the same as for men.

And so adjusting our numbers for this we can see that the 2007 figures for those 65 or over consequently drop to 16% compared with the 19% for those under 16. However, this is only a temporary respite and by 2021 we are back to equal percentages again. And from then on it becomes progressively more and more stretched. Only 20 years later, in 2041, almost one quarter of the population will be 65 or more, 17% will be under 16 and the working population, needed to support both ends of the spectrum, will constitute 59%.

Looking at this in the context of the “support ratio” as it relates to older people, that is financing their state pensions, health costs, welfare etc., we see that in 1971 there were 4.6 in the 16-64 arena for each person of 65 plus but this drops to 2.7 by 2031 and only 2.1 by 2081.

And so we see the second of the state pension measures being introduced. Between 2024 and 2046, in three phases, the state pension age for both men and women will be raised from 65 to 68. People will be expected to work longer and, obviously, the default retirement age will have to move by at least this, if not scrapped altogether, although this has yet to come.

And how does this longer working life fit into the context of our total lifespan?

There are 2 ways of estimating life expectancy used by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The one most quoted, “period” life expectancy, is arrived at by presuming that the existing mortality rates at a particular time will continue on into the future. However, the one which ONS believes gives a better picture of expected longevity builds in the anticipated changes (to date improvements) in mortality going on into the future and therefore to be experienced by the people (“cohort”) concerned.

For a man who reached 65 in 1981 the period life expectancy was to live to 78, and for a woman to live to 82. By 2006 this had increased to 82 for a man and 85 for a woman. However, if we take into consideration improving life expectancy a man can, in fact, expect to live to 86 and a woman to 88. And, on this basis, a man reaching 65 in 2030 may expect to live to 88 and a woman to 90. By 2056 the figures become 91 and 93 respectively. The issues are certainly not confined to only today’s over 50s.

With improving mortality a male born in 2006 has a life expectancy at birth of 88 and a female of 91. If they reach 50 years old they can then expect to live to 90 and 93 respectively. The chances at birth of reaching 65 are now 91% for a male and 94% for a female and will provide life expectancies of around 92 and 94 respectively.

And so the figures pile up. Greater chances of living to 75, 85 and 100 plus and a larger and larger proportion of the population made up of the elderly.

And what does this say for our retirement? Well, even with the state pension age rising to 68 for both men and women, we will see an anticipated retirement of around 22 years for men and 24 years for women. The notion that retirement is a few twilight years after a lifetime of slog is no longer relevant.

And 22 or 24 years is a long time to finance oneself without working, a long time to fill in an interesting, fulfilling and valued way, and a long time to stay physically and mentally healthy. It means people will work for, say, 40 to 50 years and then be without paid employment for 20 to 25 years. In itself this is a lot of years but it is also a large proportion of one’s life.

But length of life is not automatically associated with quality of life and, although life expectancy is increasing, a number of our final years will be in less than perfect health. The Office for National Statistics calculates two types of health expectations in this respect. Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) defines healthy life as years in good or fairly good self-perceived general health. Disability-free Life Expectancy defines healthy life as years free from limiting longstanding illness. On average men can expect about 7 of their final years to be associated with a limiting longstanding illness and women about 9 years. There is still a lot to do.

It’s all very well increasing retirement ages but will we be fit enough to work and will the workplace provide an appropriate environment?

In terms of working longer we are already seeing increasing numbers of people working on beyond state pension age. Since 2000 the proportion of men of 65 and over who are working has increased from 7.3% to 10.6%. And for women of 60 and over the figures are 8.4% and 12.5 %. The latter figure will obviously increase as the state pension age increases for women start to kick in. Although these numbers are still fairly low in absolute terms they are growing rapidly as many people choose or feel the need to continue working longer.