Abstract:

Presented is a short extract from a book A Future for Old Age by N. Bosanquet, 1978. Analyzed are current UK government policies towards the elderly in income support, housing, health, & social services, & they are found unbalanced & misdirected. A case for a new policy towards old age, based on new legislation & methods of financing is presented. Pensioners spend a much higher proportion of income on housing, food, & heating than other groups. Data are given for numbers of households in poverty by official definitions. State pensions have improved relatively, but some of the increase has simply made up for reductions in income from work. The housing conditions of the elderly are worse than those of other groups. Participation in the labor force has fallen greatly over the last twenty years, but with this & pension improvement has come reduced fear of retirement. Generally, the elderly have become more separate from the rest of the population in the last twenty years in their living standards, housing conditions, & way of life.