Opportunity Age – Opportunity and security throughout life
Prime Minister's foreword
Over the next 50 years, the UK and the rest of the developed world will experience an unprecedented change in the fabric of society. As life expectancy increases and the birth rate remains low, the proportion of the population aged over 65 will increase dramatically. An ageing society is too often - and wrongly - seen solely in terms of increasing dependency. But the reality is that, as older people become an ever more significant proportion of the population, society will increasingly depend upon the contribution they can make.
Indeed, today's older people are already challenging old preconceptions:
- they are healthier;
- they are making an economic contribution: there are around 1 million workers over State Pension Age; and
- they are breaking with the notion that old age and poverty are synonymous: pensioners are no longer any more likely to be poor than younger people.
Many older people are already enjoying life to the full making the most of the opportunities of age and making a huge contribution to their families and communities. But of course, as the number of older people grows, society faces challenges too. One challenge is to unlock the potential for older people to play an even greater role. A second is to enable us all to prepare more effectively for new horizons in our later life.
This strategy reviews the progress we have made and starts to chart a way forward for the UK over the next 10 to 15 years. But it is not just about the long term. It also discusses how we can begin to make changes now in order to improve public services for older and more vulnerable citizens. We have made good progress in combating inequality and social injustice in old age, though there is more to do. We are beginning to roll out new styles of service delivery, listening to what customers say about the way they want to communicate with public authorities. But we now need truly to embed in all policies directed towards older people the values of active independence, quality and choice that we have championed in other areas.
In services that are crucial to retaining independence, older people are still often treated as passive recipients rather than active consumers with their own views about their needs. Our purpose in the next years must be to transform that picture. Chronological age should not be a bar to choice and control of one's own life to the maximum possible. That is why I particularly welcome the proposals here for individual care budgets. This shows how services can extend to some of the most vulnerable the benefits of choice and control over their own lives that the rest of us take for granted.
We do not claim to have all the answers to demographic change. No one has a road-map for a world where pensioners outnumber children and where, for most people, more than a third of life is lived after age 50. There are many areas, pensions for one, where a quick response is less important than durable reform based on a real understanding of complex, long-term trends. But even where the questions cannot all be answered now, it is right for them to be asked and for the issues to enter public debate.
The demographic revolution offers challenges and opportunities for all of us:
- For government, the challenge is to change attitudes and preconceptions about what an ageing society means and to stimulate innovative ideas and technologies to transform older lives. We must seize the opportunity to rethink policies and approaches to public services, in order to foster true independence and choice for older citizens and help them improve their quality of life. For that to happen, we must explode the myth that ageing is a barrier to a positive contribution to the economy and society, through work and through active engagement in the community.
- For individuals, longer life is a blessing where the extra years are fulfilling and active. They should not be years of inaction and exclusion. A personal responsibility rests on each one of us to plan and provide for a different life-course that is also better.
- For business, a changing customer base offers new markets. But the workforce is changing too, and this must prompt new thinking about job design, recruitment and employer responsibilities. The fact is that older workers will increasingly be key players in their firms' success. Employers have a huge role to play in enabling society to adjust effectively to a new balance of life. With that in mind, ageism must be discarded.
- For all of us, dealing successfully with demographic change means shedding outdated stereotypes and changing mindsets about retirement and the process of growing older.
Debate about demographic change too often focuses on financial issues, extra costs in pensions, health and social care and changes in the 'dependency ratio', etc. It is true that these future costs pose real challenges to our welfare state, and raise questions about the extent to which it is right for one generation to commit our successors. These challenges must be addressed - and we are taking steps to do so. But they must not dominate our thinking about ageing. Longer lives are something to celebrate, seizing the positive opportunities they present will make sustainable solutions possible. Developing a comprehensive strategy for ageing enables these differing issues to be seen in a truer perspective.
Tony Blair
Prime Minister