On Thursday, in Florida, the International Council on Active Ageing holds its annual conference, attracting 9,000 members from 37 countries. It was among the first to recognise the economic potential of millions of baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, now approaching the final third of their lives. Some will continue to work because they wish to or have no choice. Others are involuntarily unemployed. In the UK, some, from next year, will have access to their pension pots without the need to buy an annuity, giving them resources to spend when, and on what, they wish.
Tag Archives: carers
The Observer view on the future facing Britain’s ageing population
With imagination, we can all benefit from the baby boomers’ talents
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- The Observer,
Britain’s ageing population has talents that can be utilised to their own, and society’s, benefit.
- The Observer,
Norfolk and Suffolk mental health cuts ‘devastating’
Norfolk and Suffolk’s NHS mental health services merged in 2012 and must save about £40m over four years
Funding cuts in Norfolk and Suffolk show the government is failing to put mental and physical health on an equal footing, campaigners say.
Mainstream hospitals in the two counties have seen budgets rise by 15% since 2010, while mental health service funding has fallen by 3%.
The Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk said the cuts were “devastating”.
Rising prices ‘hit poor the hardest’
A new report suggests thousands more people are living in absolute poverty than recorded by official figures.
Research by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies argues that Government statistics fail to take into account the fact that the rising cost of living hits poorer families harder than those on higher incomes.
It found households with the lowest incomes have seen prices rise by 50 per cent in the last decade compared to 43 per cent for the wealthiest.
That translates into an extra 300,000 people in absolute poverty, the IFS says in research published by the York-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).
