‘What about us?’ A pensioner’s perspective

[摘要] Every one of us has a story. Some stories are happy, some more interesting than others, while many are complicated and chaotic at times, and some just plain tragic. With a bit of luck most stories only begin to end when we reach our declining years. At this point in someone’s story many of the achievements that were recognised in the early chapters are forgotten or deemed irrelevant. This is despite the fact that the final chapter is often a time when older people remain fit and active for much longer, and form the backbone of many charities and groups of volunteers.Moreover, many of the ‘What about us?’ generation left school at 15 and have had a working life that spanned over four or five decades. Many continued to work past retirement age and some still do. In the 1960s, it was customary to have a Saturday job while still at school. At age 13, they would have started paying National Insurance and, even now in their seventies, many might not yet be fully retired and are still paying income tax on modest earnings and pensions: a whopping 50 or 60 years later.FUNDING CARE FOR OLDER PEOPLE Driven by statistics, political posturing, and speculation, the discrimination and prejudice against older people is cemented even further, a case in point being the current debate about health and social care funding. Warning the general public about how the percentage of older people in the population is set to rise, and issuing predictions concerning the increase in costs associated with caring for people who are living longer, adds more fuel to a growing level of resentment. Yet, there is little or no reference made to the tax revenue still being collected by HMRC, which would surely give a fairer and more realistic picture of the actual economic situation. Likewise, no one seems to challenge the costs of the bureaucracy involved at local, regional, and national level in administering the health and social care provision for older people in need.

[学科分类] 卫生学