Health Director

A Question Of Age

What do you regard as the chief challenges to the UK given the ageing population and how can these challenges be met by the government?

There are opportunities from the fact that we are living longer, healthier lives and grasping these opportunities will go a long way to meeting the challenges. That’s what our strategy, Building a Society for All Ages, is about. It sets out a programme of action to support the changes we need to make.

The state pension is changing in April 2010. Our pension reforms will make the state pension fairer and more generous, particularly to women and carers. Our plans for auto-enrolment and personal accounts will help millions of people on low and middle incomes save in a pension, something they may never have had the opportunity to do before.

Social care is another key consideration. We will reform how we fund and deliver social care, giving people more choice and control in later life. We are working with local authorities to improve services for older people and introducing a new Active at 60 package that will provide them with information about their entitlements and opportunities.

However, this is not just about government alone, and particularly not just about central government. As a society we must do more. Local authorities, primary care trusts and others working at local level have a key role to play. We’re working hard with these organisations; providing information, support, and promoting good practice to make the most of their resources and unlock the potential of local communities.

Individuals need to prepare for longer lives. We will make it easier for people in mid-life to prepare better for later life by providing access to information for people planning ahead, and as people approach retirement to help them remain active.

Businesses must recognise ageing in their employment policies, and in product design and development. That’s why we are asking what place, if any, a default retirement age has in employment policy, and why we are supporting better product design for older people.

Public services must continue to innovate to make local areas good places to grow old. Working with local areas, we will develop a Good Place to Grow Old Programme to promote the importance of ageing issues at a local level.

With these approaches in place I am confident we can make progress and solve the challenges an ageing society presents.

Changing the role of older people in society requires a shift in attitudes among the general population – how can these attitudes be changed?

Britain is experiencing lasting demographic change which means that people today are now likely to spend a third of their lives, on average, in retirement. This means we need to change completely the way we think about getting older. Most of all, we need to plan ahead and start saving for retirement.

Extra years in health and prosperity will also enable people to spend longer with their families and provide more options to pursue leisure and cultural interests. People will want to think about extending their working lives, and employers and those who provide services can all do more to adapt to the changing needs of an older population.

Another important issue when we consider our ageing society is how to build greater understanding between older and younger generations. The government is spending £5.5m to bring young and older people together. We will fund 12 projects across the country to support volunteering opportunities that bring different generations together through outdoor pursuits, arts, IT and sport.

However, recent DWP research on attitudes to ageing showed that there is a huge diversity in perceptions of age. On average people think youth ends at 45 and old age starts at 63! Old stereotypes persist, with most people thinking older people are friendlier, more admirable and moral than younger people, whereas young people are more likely to be seen as not capable but more likely to be envied.

This research shows that ageism is not just an issue for older people and there is some way to go before we have a society where people are no longer defined by age and everyone is able to play a full part.

If working life is to be extended what kind of support will need to be put in place both in terms of helping employers to employ older people and to ensure those employees are fit and healthy enough to contribute to the workplace?

In an ageing society it makes sense to look at what we can do to support choices to work longer. We have introduced age discrimination regulations to make compulsory retirement below 65 generally unlawful and we are bringing forward our review of the default retirement age of 65 to this year (2010). If there is evidence it is no longer needed we will remove it. It is important that people have the choice to ‘wind down’ by reducing their hours or working more flexibly in the years before they fully retire and we are also working with employers and stakeholders to promote flexible working.

The government’s Age Positive initiative is encouraging employers to recruit, train and retain older workers and enabling existing employees to work longer where they choose to do so. Older workers contribute valuable experience and skills to a business which can result in a reduction in recruitment and retraining costs and an increase in productivity.

The recent white paper, Building Britain’s Recovery, announced a new initiative to provide each of the main occupational sectors with dedicated support to open up more opportunities for flexible working and phased retirement to better meet the needs of older workers and businesses alike.

We have also set out plans to help keep people fit and healthy in work in our response to Dame Carol Black’s review. This could be particularly helpful for older workers. We will also help them manage any health conditions they may have to stay in work, and if they do become ill to help them move back into work as quickly as possible.

We have set up the Challenge Fund, for example, to reward innovative ways of improving employees’ health and wellbeing and an occupational health advice line to offer managers advice on individual employee health issues that they may be unsure how to address.

Angela Eagle, minister of state for pensions and the ageing society