Changing attitudes in Government can be a long and drawn out process, with success defined more often by incremental progress than revolutionary shifts. In any normal year Help the Aged meets with MPs and decision makers countless times and hopefully, by degrees, we bring them round to the proposals we know will help older people.

2009 will bring many more opportunities for incremental change, but it may also present the chance to make great strides forward in older people’s position in society. This year we could see the last piece in the jigsaw of equality law – bringing an end to age discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services, and we have an exciting opportunity to revolutionise our creaking social care system.

Equality

The coming Parliamentary year has the potential to see older people finally enjoying the same right to equality as the rest of society. The commitment to an integrated Equality Bill brings with it the promise of legal protection against age discrimination in all areas of life. A ban on age discrimination in the workplace and in vocational training in 2006 was the first step on this journey, but since then our quest for full equality has been an uphill struggle. Even now, with the Bill in sight, there are still struggles ahead. Despite the commitment to ban age discrimination outside the workplace through the Equality Bill there is no clarity on when the regulations, which will bring the law into force in key fields such as health and social care, will be laid. There are some concerns that the process may be drawn out beyond the next election - leaving the whole project in question.

A ban on age discrimination in the provision of goods and services is urgently needed. With the appropriate legislation we can stop health providers dismissing the symptoms brought to them by older people as just ‘old age’ – ending the “it’s just your age dear” syndrome which prevents too many older people from getting access to the interventions they so urgently need. With the right laws in place we can make sure older people get fair access to primary health care in residential care homes. With strong regulations we can make certain that appropriate pain relief is offered to patients whatever their age, and that access to palliative care is available no matter when we reach the end of our lives.

Continuous campaigning by older people, Help the Aged and those who work on the front lines of our health and care services has brought us to the cusp of ensuring older people get the same protections in law which other groups in our society enjoy. But we are not there yet. It is essential that in the early months of 2009 we keep the momentum going and convert the Government's warm intentions into concrete legislation and practical action.

Social Care

When Gordon Brown, in his speech to the Labour Party Conference in 2008, highlighted the issue of social care as one of the key challenges facing the nation, many long standing commentators on social care breathed a huge sigh of relief – at last the care agenda was receiving the political attention it deserved! 2009 will be the year in which we find out whether this attention will be translated into action. The Social Care green paper which is expected in spring is a huge opportunity to fix a system at breaking point, and one which we are determined to seize.

Population ageing is bringing with it increased demand for care and support, with which our current system is ill-prepared to cope. The harsh economic realities we now face mean there can be little hope that the trend for tightening eligibility criteria and withdrawal of services will be reversed any time soon. But the consequences of failing to meet care needs are unthinkable. Not just for the individual older people who, unsupported, will be forced to live lives which in the very worst cases demean their very humanity; but also for their wider families and communities who either shoulder the care burden themselves, or miss out on the contributions which older people with proper support can continue to make.

Clearly a radical overhaul of care is needed. Incremental change will not be enough. We need a new commitment to funding care going forward, based on a sustainable settlement negotiated and agreed between individuals, families, communities and the state.

Our new system must be genuinely supportive and enabling, including meeting the needs of those who require low level support. This support might come from low level social care services, but could just as easily come for example from other community-based services provided by Local Authorities, community groups, or individual volunteers.

Carers are central players in the social care system and their role needs to be acknowledged. Carers take on a role that the state might otherwise need to. This must be recognised and compensated for, acknowledging the sacrifices carers make and the costs they save the state.

We have already made clear some of the key principles on which we believe the future system should be based, including the vital importance of designing a system which builds in age equality from the outset. It simply cannot be acceptable for a “Berlin Wall” to exist between services for those under and over the age of 65.

We have also set out our belief that the new social care system should be based on a national system of eligibility and entitlement, sweeping away the local disparities which plague our current system.

The Government has made clear that it acknowledges that the care system needs reform, but their challenge in the coming months must be to build on this pledge, with concrete commitment to new funding and a bold new approach to the system as a whole.

Poverty

Gordon Brown’s party conference speech also highlighted another key agenda for Help the Aged; that of poverty and income inequality. But here the pledges were sorely lacking. Whilst child poverty campaigners were promised a legal obligation to end child poverty, pensioner poverty went unmentioned.

Disgracefully, the latest Government figures show UK pensioner poverty has increased for the first time in a decade (Adams et al., 2008). On average, a staggering 822 pensioners fall into poverty each day over the course of a year. What is yet more worrying is the number in extreme poverty has also risen. These are the people who are most vulnerable and in need. Yet the Government shows worrying signs of complacency in this area.

The last two years have seen feverish activity in the pensions area, with two crucial Bills passing through the House, aimed at improving pensioner incomes for the future. But while these Bills have set out welcome changes for tomorrow’s pensioners, current pensioners will gain little from the changes and too many continue to have their lives blighted by poverty.

The Government’s anti-poverty strategy for pensioners is based firmly on means tested benefits and yet the Government is sitting on more than £5 billion in unclaimed benefits (Smithson, 2008). All too often the argument is made that pensioners are too proud to claim benefits. This may be true in some cases but for the majority, it is the complexity of claiming and the assumption that they are not entitled to anything that puts people off. Help the Aged does not believe that marketing and promotion, the Government’s favoured techniques to date, are the best ways to tackle these barriers. We are therefore urging the Government to use the data it holds to make payments automatically, so that older people can get the money they are entitled to without having to make a claim.

We have already seen some incremental change in this area, with the Government altering its claim processes so that new claimants of Pension Credit can also claim Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit at the same time, but there is still a long way to go. A brave Government could take bold steps in this area with a little bit of flexible thinking around data sharing across Government and a more pragmatic approach to the risk of occasional overpayment.

We hope that, particularly in the current economic climate, the Government will renew and refresh its focus on pensioner poverty and bring forward bold new initiatives in this area.

Conclusions

The Government has said that its focus for 2009 is fairness. Our work over the coming year will seek to ensure that this means fairness among older people and fairness between older and younger people. For millions of people, growing older is about loss not gain. The loss of wealth, companionship, dignity and respect are seen by many as an inevitable part of ageing. Help the Aged believes this need not be the case and will work together with Government, businesses, service-providers and individuals to combat this culture of loss and bring about a fairer old age.

References

Adams, N., Johnson, G., Matejic, P., Murray, C., Toufexis, N., Whatley, J. (2008). Households below average income: An analysis of the income distribution 1994/95 – 2006/07. London: Department for Work and Pensions. Available online (accessed 10/01/2009): http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/hbai/hbai2007/pdf_files/full_hbai08.pdf

Smithson, E. (2008). Income related benefits estimates of take-up in 2006-07. London: Department for Work and Pensions. Available online (accessed 10/01/2009): http://www.dwp.gov.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases/2008/jun/ifd100608benefits.pdf