Our Agenda for 2012

Tom Wright CBE

Chief Executive, Age UK

Age UK – aiming to improve later life

• We use our voice to campaign for change

• We provide information and advice to more than 6 million people each year

• Encourage and enable people to benefit from the digital world

• Provide practical support to people at home

• Tackle market failures with age-friendly services, products and partnerships

• Commission research to tackle ill-health and boost quality of life

• Work globally to help over a million people in developing countries

Across our five pillars:

Money Matters

Health & Wellbeing

Home & Care

Work & Learning

Travel & Lifestyle

Proportion of Population Aged 60 and over

Policy for later life in 2011

Steps forwards:

• Abolition of the Default Retirement Age

• The report of the Dignity in Care Commission

• Proposals for a simpler single-tier State Pension

Steps backwards:

• Impact of cuts and high living costs

• Failure to implement Equality Act

Opportunities and risks

• The economics of ageing

• Public service reform

The Age UK indicatorsGoing forward Going backward

Older population Longevity gap (UK and world)

Employment Age discrimination

Volunteering (65-74) Learning

Bank accounts (85+) Paying into a non-state pension

Size of the grey market Fuel poverty

Digital inclusion Preventable deaths (stroke)

Healthy life expectancy (women) Healthy life expectancy (men)

Taking exercise (women) Taking exercise (men)

Excess winter deaths Emergency hospital readmissions

Loneliness Low level home help

Direct payments Care or support at home

Fear of crime (75+) Fear of violent crime (65-74)

Direct payments

Work and Learning

• Nearly a third aged 65-74 volunteer, and a fifth aged 75+, but learninghas fallen

• Employment rate of 50-64 age group improved marginally to 65%, but 1mworkless people in this age group want to work

• Perceived age discrimination up from 48% to 61%

Priorities for 2012:

• Full implementation of Equality Act

• Increase support for training, promote flexible working and reflect needs of 50+ in Jobcentre Plus and the Work Programme

• Provide resources and advice to help people participate in communities

Money Matters

• Poverty is stable, but 16% still live below poverty line

• A third of those eligible for pension credit do not get it

• Tomorrow’s pensioners less likely to pay into non-state pension (down from 40% to 38%)

Priorities for 2012:

• A joint push on poverty and support for fuel poor households

• Simpler, fairer pension of at least £140, with improvements for current pensioners needed too

• Savers must get best value from private pensions, with low charges and action on ‘small pots’

Consumer and Lifestyle

• Spending by older households now £109bn a year

• Yet 39% of those aged 65+ see little business interest in their needs

• Changes in consumer protection, information and advice are inadequate and potentially damaging

• Digital inclusion improving, but still 41% of 64-74 have never used the internet

Priorities for 2012:

• Encouraging business to reflect diversity of older population through initiatives such as the Engage business network

• Ensuring adequate funding for information, advice and advocacy

• Avoiding a reduction in consumer protection

• Support to get online, and offline access for essential services

Health and Wellbeing

• Healthy life expectancy at 65 - up for women (11.7 years) but down for men (10 years), with big local variations

• Emergency hospital readmissions up from 176,790 to 188,138

• 21% of patients not treated with dignity and respect

Priorities for 2012:

• Local health boards and strategies must include needs of older people

• Public Health and NHS outcomes must not discriminate

• New NHS commissioning board must plan health services that better meet needs of older people

• Implementing recommendations of Dignity in Care Commission

Home and Care

• Spending on older people’s care reduced by £341m, in spite of Government’s intention to protect front-line (£500m funding gap)

• 7% aged 65+ often or always lonely and 6% leave their homes once a week or less

• Worry about crime – 13% aged 65-74 have high level of worryabout violent crime, 6% aged 75+

Priorities for 2012:

• Address funding gap in care and implement Dilnot recommendations

• Promoting high accessibility standards for homes and ‘age-friendly’ cities

• Ensuring councils build effective consultation into their processes

• Ensuring new police commissioners tackle crime affecting older people

Global ageing: humanitarian emergencies• 26 million older people affected by natural disasters every year

• UK Government recognises older people as a vulnerable group in emergencies but still few mechanisms to respond to older people’s needs

• Only 0.2 percent of UN appeals for humanitarian relief actually target older people

Priorities for 2012

• Ensuring the UK Government includes older people in emergency programmes

• Encouraging other Governments and emergency relief organisations to improve their programmes to ensure they reach older people

• Strengthening Age UK’s response to emergency appeals as a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)

A new approach to ageing

• Individuals need to take greater responsibility for planning their later lives

• Business must better respond to older consumers

• Civil society must forge stronger alliances to get results

• Local government must listen more to older people, developing joined-up strategies that take into account their potential contributions

• Central government must provide stronger leadership in setting an agendafor active ageing.

The potential of an ageing population is enormous.