When the hospital reconfiguration consultation document “Designed for North Wales" was published last year, it was astounding that it seemed to largely ignore the demographic profile of the geographic area served by Llandudno Hospital.When services vital to the real health needs of an ageing population were being earmarked for closure, health planners engaged by the Welsh Assembly Government seemed blissfully unaware that the county of Conwy had the highest proportion of over 75s in the whole of Wales and that this would grow rapidly over the next twenty years.
Unfortunately, they are not alone in such ignorance and policymakers regularly seem content to focus on short term political imperatives rather than proactively responding to the changing world around them.
That is why I was pleased that a special economic summit being held in Germany recently was examining the challenge that the whole of Europe is facing when it comes to an ageing population. The big fact from the conference was that the average age of the European population had now reached 40, which is due to the healthier lifestyles that most of us now follow, combined with the more sophisticated medical care that enables us to live longer.
With further improvements in medicine, the average age of the population by the middle of this century will have increased to 50, with over 40 million pensioners aged 65 or over across Europe.
In itself, that would not be a problem, but the fact that there will also be far less adults working to pay the taxes necessary to support an ageing population means that governments are becoming seriously concerned over the viability of their social security systems and who will pay for health services and pensions.
Certainly, families could be encouraged to have more babies, but given the increased birth rate across the rest of the developing world, that may not be a sensible option. More workers could also be attracted into the country although this has its own specific issues.
It has been estimated that millions of new immigrants would need to be imported to the UK over the next 30 years to ensure that the ratio of working adults to pensioners, and hence the tax contribution to health and social security, would remain the same.
Pro-family and pro-immigration policies can certainly form part of the solution, but the real answer may lie in encouraging greater activity amongst older people. It has been suggested that Government policies should support longer working lives, help with increased savings to support personal care and encourage flexibility amongst employers to ensure that older workers can continue to make a real contribution to their community and local economy.
Indeed, with people living longer and remaining in good mental and physical health well past the age of retirement, this is clearly a priority that our politicians need to take seriously now. After all, it is an issue that will affect all of us sometime during the next fifty years.
Comments
Whilst I think there is a case for this, I also think that there is a danger in such a blanket measure. Different jobs take different tolls on people, both mental and physical. It is totally counterproductive to expect say a heavy manual worker or a teacher to continue working in the same mode until they reach 70.
This is not to say that other arrangemnts could be found. In Germany for example, people approaching retirement age are encouraged to switch to 2/3rds or half their current hours rather than stopping straight away.
There could also be a scheme whereby people of say 60+ could opt out of their current jobs and take up advisory positions or paid 'voluntary' work. This would have the advantage of freeing up jobs, but would offer individuals and society considerable benefits.
Both these ideas are only really viable if pensions are not adversely affected, and perhaps you Dylan have some ideas on that.
There also needs to be a huge culture change - our current fetishism of youth does nothing to facilitate such thinking.
Compulsion will also not work. Some people simply want to retire, be it at 60, 65 or 70 and should obviously be allowed to do so.
The most ridiculous exmaple of this was quoted in the Times Higher this week where 300 students have signed a petition to stop a lecturer retiring.
http://www.thes.co.uk/current_edition/story.aspx?story_id=2037281
HE is certainly a sector where they are finding it difficult to recruit new staff but, due to the narrow vision of the leaders in this sector, seem happy to pension excellent retiring lecturers off whose have decades of knwledge.
You can imagine, in ancient Rome or Greece, someone saying to Cicero or Aristtle - sorry, lads, you've reached retirement age - we don't need your wisdom anymore.
There is no reason why, in certain education and knowledge-based industries, contracts can be extended indefinitely, or possibly under the 2/3rds model you propose. It would add enormous value, especially if these individuals could also act as mentors to younger staff.
Those who are in the private and often the voluntary sectors have to keep working and its their taxes that are paying for others to retire - where is the social justice in that
Many, especially women who have returned to work don’t earn enough to get a pension that you can retire on.
So its not voluntarily working past the retirement age as it stands now – there’s no choice, some of us will have to work until the silver threads take over from the gold.
You're right, of course. Early retirement, or any kind of retirement in the sense of 'relaxing' is not an option for many. And that's not one either.
"Compulsion will also not work. Some people simply want to retire, be it at 60, 65 or 70 and should obviously be allowed to do so. "
I can't see that happening in reality. Why is the government encouraging people to pay into private pension funds when they are unlikely to benefit from them? People are burnt out by 50-55 in many of the most stressful professions and many have to stop working through ill health.
Those fit 70s you see are those who have had years to relax, enjoy their old age and most importantly, time to look after their health properly.
"I agree that a blanket decision is worthless. Some people want to retire early whereas others do not wish to retire at all. "
The unpleasant reality is that there are some professions where you have no choice but to leave at a certain age. There are other professions like the financial industry where employment contracts are not until retirement and there are many unemployed 50+ professionals desperately looking for work. No one has seen to think about this reality.
Some people do not want to retire at 65 but their employers might have been looking forward to the day !
Absolutely. That's why offering people a 'second career' could be worthwhile. If someone is too ill to work, then that is a different matter entirely.
Like the other anon said, there are also many people who are made unemployed in their mid-fifties and have little chance of finding adequate further work, it at all.
Such a scheme might also enable some of these people ot feel as if they are valuable members of their communties again.