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To oldly go into an upbeat future
By: Malcolm Dean
The Guardian, April 18, 2001
The disparity between the idea of retirement and the reality makes grim
reading. Although age discrimination will be banned by 2006 more work must
be done, writes Malcolm Dean
Compare and contrast young people's view of retirement with reality.
Almost half of people aged between 16 and 24 are already looking forward
to retirement, according to a BBC poll this month. A separate poll by
Eagle Star last year found two-thirds of retirees "shocked" at
both the speed their working lives ended and their shortage of funds.
A report from the Cabinet Office last year further filled out the grim
picture. One third of people aged between 50 and state pension age do not
have a job - almost 3m - yet only 150,000 said that they did not need to
work.
The current Reith lecture series is the third public assault on ageism in
the last decade. First came the Carnegie Inquiry into the Third Age
(1992-95) followed by Age Concern's millennium Debate of the Age, ending
last year. All three have pointed to similar problems: prejudice, bias and
negative stereotyping.
But all are remarkably upbeat with good reason. The extra 25 years added
to life expectancy in the last 100 years is one of the greatest
achievements of the 20th century. In his Reith lectures, Tom Kirkwood
sends out an even more optimistic message: "Ageing is neither
inevitable nor necessary."
Only four years ago the Office for National Statistics suggested increases
in longevity had not coincided with a postponement of ill health. More
than 60% of men and 70% of women at 75 were suffering from some form of
long-standing illness, disability or infirmity. This corresponded to
Carnegie, which documented the decline with age of muscle power and
stamina.
Now along comes Kirkwood, capturing headlines with his assertion that we
are not programmed to die. Indeed, that we are programmed for survival.
"Ageing comes about through the gradual build-up of unrepaired faults
in the cells and tissues of our bodies, not as a result of some active
mechanism for death and destruction. If we can discover the nature of
these faults, we can hope to slow down their accumulation."
The biggest danger - after the headlines and interviews - is that his
caveats could be ignored. Indeed, in the question period following his
lecture he was far less optimistic, conceding it would take "a very
long time" for effective scientific interventions.
Meanwhile, given the success already in reducing biological ageing, it's
time to concentrate on the injuries of social ageing. Thanks to a new
European Union directive, we will belatedly ban age discrimination by 2006
and make the retirement age more flexible. Health ministers have responded
to Age Concern's exposure of discrimination in the NHS. But there is still
much more that needs to be done.
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