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The Challenge of Longer Life The Report of the Working Group on the Implications of Demographic Change A Catalyst Paper. A recurring and increasingly frequent assumption of our times is that population ageing is creating a demographic time bomb. For over 20 years anxieties have been growing in all industrialized economies that ageing populations threaten our collective futures. Some worry about the damaging impact on economic growth. Others that the growing numbers of older people will bankrupt pension, health and other welfare support systems for the elderly. Some fear even worse consequences, with democratic society falling apart as inter-generational conflict becomes the new "class war". In April 2002 a United Nations conference in Madrid summed up this darkening mood when it debated the possibility that the greatest threat to the quality of life in developed countries – more than war, disease and natural disaster – is the ageing of their populations. This report argues that these demographic concerns are greatly exaggerated. Moreover it rejects the perverse way that the human success story of longer lives is turned into a problem. But this is not to say that nothing needs to be done. On the contrary we need to encourage action in two main related areas. • We need to make it possible for older people to lead active and independent lives longer – there is spontaneous pressure in the direction of longer active lives, but there are a number of social and institutional barriers which are holding the trend back. • And we need to stem and reverse actions taken by governments and other institutions as a response to the fears of ageing populations which are making things worse. This report reflects discussions in a Working Group whose members include Steve Fothergill (Sheffield Hallam University); Kevin Gardiner (Credit Suisse First Boston); Dr Jay Ginn (Sociology Department, Surrey University); Patrick Grattan (Third Age Employment Network); John Grieve Smith (Convenor; Cambridge University); John Hawksworth (Pricewaterhouse Coopers); Dr Felicia Huppert (CIRCA); Tony Lynes (National Pensioners’ Convention); Gerard Lyons (Standard Chartered Bank); Phil Mullan (Cyberia); Dr Philip Taylor (CIRCA). All were participating in a personal capacity. "Bring home the bacon or put more in the piggy" - The Guardian, 30 June 2003 "Defusing the demographic timebomb" - Chartist, March 2003 "Defusing the timebomb" - The Observer, 15 December 2002 "British pensioners pay for Brown's rectitude" - The Guardian, 2 December 2002 "Ministers accused of ducking pensions debate" - ePolitix, 27 November 2003 "Don't panic on pensions, says thinktank" - ePolitix, 25 November 2002 "Why
an ageing population is no cause for gloom" - |
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