Comments on: It’s time for a new social contract between the generations. https://neweconomics.opendemocracy.net/its-time-for-a-new-social-contract-between-the-generations/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=its-time-for-a-new-social-contract-between-the-generations Tue, 11 Sep 2018 13:31:47 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.3.4 By: Heather Hughes https://neweconomics.opendemocracy.net/its-time-for-a-new-social-contract-between-the-generations/#comment-59 Wed, 14 Dec 2016 17:58:00 +0000 https://www.opendemocracy.net/neweconomics/?p=597#comment-59 I am also struggling with some of the arguments made here. People are already having to work longer with pension age rising to 67. The near doubling of the over 85 cohort by 2030 has been known about for decades, Yes it is a massive increase but of not that many people. 2015 population for UK 85+ is around 1.5 million. Similarly the triple lock is regarded as an unfair perk for older people – on a not very big ( 2nd lowest in Europe?) state pension.
The issue about underfunding for health and social care causes a great deal of hardship and misery among the older population of all income groups. For example ,there is a real inequity regarding health and social care provision between adults with a disability and older people with the same disability or which has similar affects. Support for an adult ( 18-65) with a learning disability will cost the state at least double what the state will pay for an older person with dementia that presents at the same level of disability. Medical admissions wards, where 95% of beds will be occupied by older people, are staffed by the most inexperienced doctors at the lowest possible staffing ratios. Apparently the death rate of older people ( women) is rising quite markedly. Older people with assets above 24k including their home have to pay for all or part of their own residential/ nursing care and domiciliary care at home. People with severe mobility problems are entitled to mobility allowance/ mobility element of PIP – unless they are over 65 in which case tough. There are lots more examples of age discrimination in the welfare state.
Why do you assume that older people do not pay tax? The unspoken intergenerational contract has not been broken , there is no reason why today’s young people should not have everything that today’s older people have when they too are old. Or even better. Rolling over and saying we cant afford to do this is utter nonsense and a purely political stance. The 85 plus bulge is just that – the post war population blip going through. We just need to gear up for it for the short while it will last.
Where I do agree with the article is around the issues of property and student loans, and on final salary pensions. This puts today’s more affluent young people into a very different place from their parents. Those whose parents are in ( social ?) rented , and who probably didn’t go on to higher education, are in much the same place if they can find somewhere to rent ( although probably more insecure) and have no student debt . As the first in my family to go to University my expectations were that my children would do the same. I didn’t/ couldn’t get on the housing ladder until I was 31. I paid their rent and bills for the 8 years they were studying – my parents could never have done that. I am still helping one of them financially 4 years after she graduated. Neither is in London, so they may well buy property at some point. I will help with a house deposit when they are ready to settle, and they will do ok when I die.

The article reads like more of the race to the bottom. Take away things that benefit older people rather than fighting for a better deal for everyone. I am disappointed, I hoped for better from this website.

]]> By: AdamRamsay https://neweconomics.opendemocracy.net/its-time-for-a-new-social-contract-between-the-generations/#comment-58 Tue, 13 Dec 2016 11:17:00 +0000 https://www.opendemocracy.net/neweconomics/?p=597#comment-58 I’m not sure I am convinced by “we are living longer, and therefore have to work longer”. With automation destroying jobs already, and so less human labour needing to be done, why should that work be done by older people. Won’t that just increase youth unemployment and exacerbate the problems mentioned here?

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