Ageing Society Essay

The dangers of an ageing society

Due to vital progress in healthcare, humans keep living longer than ever before. At the same time, a change of mentality, mostly in more developed countries, leads to shrinking numbers of childbirth. The first statement seems to be more than positive; in contrast, the decreasing number of young people is concerning. While the average age of the United Kingdom’s population was approximately 34 in 1974, it rose to 40 in 2014. People over 65 made up 18% of the population in 2014 which is an increase of 47% since 1974 (Office for National Statistics). These numbers have alarmed governments around the world, as this is not just a national issue. The reasons for this trend of an ageing society are the problem of

The insurance paid by employers and employees won’t be enough to secure pension costs. Some people argue that migration can solve the problem of an ageing society, but this is an overestimation. The attraction of young and skilled immigrants to a country has almost always positive impacts on the age-structure of the country. They strengthen the workforce and therefore help towards funding the retired workers. Furthermore, they heighten the fertility rate in the country they immigrate. Unfortunately, migration alone cannot erase the looming danger of an ageing population. Yet, it certainly can slow the process down (Harper). Nevertheless, specialists expect an increase of retired people over 65 years by 35% to 50% during the next 20 years. In this case, contribution rates by the working forces would have to rise significantly from its current rate of 13% to over 18% in the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, there are proposals to solve this problem. If every worker had his own “pension fund” where he saves money for retirement himself, the dependence on the working youth could be reduced. The main difficulty with this method would be the current retired population that did not have the chance to save up for themselves but still need money to live (Read). Furthermore, the question remains what would happen to stay at home parents who don’t have an income because they spend their

A great amount of people see the elderly as always dependant and in need of help. This picture does not fit into reality. There are many older people that are still fully fit and active. They are still capable of taking care of themselves and even others. There is a lot of unused potential in retired people, especially in the area of volunteering. Lord Bichard, chair of the Social Care Institute for Excellence, said: “If we had more ‘younger older people’ involved in visiting [in residential homes] as volunteers we would have fewer problems.” To achieve this, we need to change our mentality and our behaviour towards older people (Murray). Volunteering is not the only option. The government of the United Kingdom plans an increase to the pensioners’ age. By October 2020 the pensioner age will be 66 years for both genders and between 2026 and 2028 it will be raised to 67 years (Age UK). Being part of the work force for a longer time means more contribution to the funding of retired workers, as discussed before, but also more time to save money for later. It seems only fair to raise the pensioners age when humans are expected to live longer and healthier