Member News
There are more pensioners than children in the UK for the first time, according to official figures.
Office for National Statistics figures show that there were almost 13.3 million over 60-year-olds in mid 2007, compared to 12.9 million the previous year.
The number of under-18s fell from 13,119,654 to 13,111,023 in this period.
Commentators have said the shift could lead to pension shortfalls, a greater burden on the NHS and steadily increasing retirement ages.
Mervyn Kohler, special adviser at Help the Aged, said: "The key task for policy makers going forward is to ensure that older people can increasingly play an active role in our ageing society.
"The days of assuming older people are dependants must now come to an end."
He added that "an ageing society is a fact of life which should be welcomed and embraced, not treated with concern".
The figures also showed that a record 605,000 long-term migrants came to the UK in the year to mid-2007, up from 591,000 on the previous 12 months.
The Times quoted shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve as saying: "These figures provide a stark illustration of Labour's failure to manage our immigration system.
"Labour must realise that immigration can benefit the country, but only if it is properly controlled."
Click here for details of a Westminster Briefing event on dementia on September 17.
And click here for details of a Westminster Briefing event on end of life care on October 22.
Stakeholder Response: Age Concern
Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern told ePolitix.com:
"Not only is the average Briton getting older, but we are also facing longer periods of ill health in later life.
"The government must face up to the reality of an ageing population and make a firm commitment to improve health services, like mental health and foot care, which enable people to stay independent for longer.
"So long as the government makes appropriate plans, later life, can, for most of us, be a time to try new things, meet new people and be worry free."
Stakeholder Response: Help the Aged
Mervyn Kohler special adviser at Help the Aged told ePolitix.com:
"These new figures should be a cause for celebration. Policy makers and others must increasingly adjust their thinking to take stock of these clear changes in population. As Help the Aged has made clear through our own Just Equal Treatment campaign, equality for older people matters now more than ever as these demographic changes become clearer to all.
"The key task for policy makers going forward is to ensure that older people can increasingly play an active role in our ageing society. The days of assuming older people are dependents must now come to an end. For example, there will need to be improved engagement with the need to develop housing supply that allows older people a genuine choice about how and where they live. Lifetime homes standards should be embraced as comprehensively as possible to help secure that choice.
"Additionally, the challenges of an ageing society means that the government must now grasp the nettle of reform to the social care system with real urgency. The costs of allowing the social care system to continue to slowly wither on the vine would be enormous - these new statistics show in the starkest terms that the numbers of people who will require support in older age is set to grow ever larger. That surely means the time has now come to reform the system so that older people themselves are in control of their care packages.
"In employment, these figures clearly show the economic harm that will be caused to UK plc by continuing to exclude older people from the active workforce. Now is surely the time to consign the out-dated requirement for people to retire just because they reach a certain birthday to the dustbin. If an older person wishes to continue working, that should be something the government and employers warmly welcome, instead of setting arbitrary ages for retirement.
"Changes to our population are inevitable over time. An ageing society is a fact of life which should be welcomed and embraced, not treated with concern. These new figures should give everyone pause for thought about our future."
Stakeholder response: Anchor Trust
A spokesman for the Anchor Trust told ePolitix.com:
"Not only will there be larger numbers of older people but they will be more demanding and have more complex care needs.
"As our population ages, it will not be a case of providing 'more of the same', we need to think of new and innovative ways to meet people's needs.
"This may mean increasing specialist dementia care provision such as the specialist care homes developed by Anchor Trust in Coventry. As the Government's older people's housing strategy published earlier this year indicated, bedsits will be increasingly unpopular, so it also means offering the more demanding 'baby boomer' generation attractive and modern housing which will meet their changing expectations. The debate around long term future funding will also continue.
We need clarity around issues such as direct payments, and how older people can be given the confidence and peace of mind to fund their own housing and care, and to make their own choices.
Our discussion document, 'Anchor 2020', considers how the challenges of older people's housing and care can be met."
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