There are clear benefits for individuals and their families, in remaining healthy, active and financially secure for as long as possible. This is most likely to happen if people think about their aspirations for later life and prepare accordingly.
Many people currently do not prepare well because they underestimate how long they will live or do not know how to access the right information and advice. Individuals will often look to family, friends and the third sector to help, but there is also a role for central and local government and public bodies to assist everyone in making plans for the future.
The case for change FACT 1: 7 million people are estimated to be under-saving for retirement – this means they will not be able to fund their aspirations or, in the most extreme cases, may find themselves living in poverty in retirement.1
FACT 2: Only 17 per cent of men and 13 per cent of women between the ages of 65 and 74 meet the Chief Medical Officer’s recommendations for physical activity of 30 minutes on five or more days a week. Yet people who are physically active reduce their risk of developing major chronic diseases by up to 50 per cent and the risk of premature death by between 20 and 30 per cent.2
People’s expectations and sense of optimism are key to their quality of later life.3 But not making the most of opportunities can result in inactivity and loneliness, reducing an individual’s well-being.4
“I’m hoping that later life might give me the time to try some of the things that I haven’t done yet and feel that I have the confidence to find out about these things.” Individual respondent to HMG, Preparing for our Ageing Society; A Discussion Paper (2008).
“I’m hoping that later life might give me the time to try some of the things that I haven’t done yet and feel that I have the confidence to find out about these things.”
Individual respondent to HMG, Preparing for our Ageing Society; A Discussion Paper (2008).
In order to help and encourage more people to make the most of their time in later life, we need to promote opportunities to be active, and the benefits of taking these up, as well as provide a greater range of opportunities.
FACT 3: Engagement in many activities including sports, leisure or learning, declines with age.5
FACT 4: The number of women experiencing loneliness rises from around 35 per cent in the 50-59 age group to over 50 per cent among the 80+ age group.6
We have already taken significant steps to help people prepare for their future and make the decisions which are right for them. Specific areas where we have provided information and support to people include financial planning, taking steps to maintain or improve health and thinking about how they want to make the most of later years.
The most significant step we have taken to increase the number of people who save for their future is the new duty we have placed on employers which will be effective from 2012. This duty means employers will automatically enrol all eligible workers between the ages of 22 and State Pension age into a good quality workplace pension scheme and pay a minimum 3 per cent contribution. By ensuring that employees will have to opt out rather than opt in to pension saving, we expect that millions more people will start to save for the future.
We have also taken steps to improve people’s understanding of financial planning and provide them with guidance and support. In April 2009, we launched a pilot with the Financial Services Authority to test a Money Guidance service. This offers people impartial financial guidance via the internet, telephone and face-to-face7 and helps them to gain the knowledge, understanding and confidence necessary to make informed decisions about financial issues. Subject to the success of this, we will make the service available across the country from 2010. In 2002 the Citizens Advice Bureau launched the Financial Skills For Life programme which provides face-to-face financial education sessions on a range of topics, including preparation for later life. This is currently available in 120 bureaux across England and Wales, and we aim to make this available in all bureaux across the country by 2011.
In 2009/10 the NHS will start to offer an NHS Health Check to people in England aged between 40 and 70 to encourage people to take steps to maintain or improve their health. This is a vascular risk assessment and management programme for people in England who will be offered a check once every five years to assess their risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and diabetes, followed by individually tailored advice to support them in managing or reducing their risk.
To help people take control over their health and the steps they need to take to improve it we are currently piloting the NHS Mid-life LifeCheck. This is an online health and lifestyle assessment for people aged 45-60, focusing on factors including smoking, healthy eating, alcohol use, physical activity and emotional wellbeing. Subject to the success of the pilots, we will launch the NHS Mid-life LifeCheck nationally later this year. We also set out our strategy to encourage people to remain physically active, so as to improve their chances of enjoying good mental and physical health in their later years in Be Active, Be Healthy.8
In addition to the steps we are taking to improve people’s health in their later years the NHS, primary care teams and local authorities are already working closely together to improve health and wellbeing for people of all ages in their areas. For example, local services have already helped thousands of people lose weight, give up smoking and reduce their alcohol consumption, and have developed innovative ways of encouraging people to tackle lifestyle issues and get the help they need through local services. All of these measures will help people to lead healthier longer lives.
When making decisions about their careers, people often face a wide range of barriers such as low skills, caring responsibilities, and finance. To address this we are developing the Adult Advancement and Careers Service to give people tailored advice and support via the internet, telephone and face-to-face. We will make the service available across England from August 2010. People approaching later life often suffer disproportionately from many of these barriers, and so stand to gain most.
It is important that people not only start to think about what they want to do in their later years, but also that they have local networks to facilitate this. To help people make these connections and plan accordingly we will provide more local pre-retirement courses working with the educational charity, the Life Academy.9
“Pre-retirement education helps to encourage people to consider options (to continue participating actively in their communities) and increases confidence, combats stereotypical attitudes and provides up to date information and signposting.” Written response to HMG, Preparing for our Ageing Society: A Discussion Paper (2008) from The Pre-Retirement Association of Greater Manchester.
“Pre-retirement education helps to encourage people to consider options (to continue participating actively in their communities) and increases confidence, combats stereotypical attitudes and provides up to date information and signposting.”
Written response to HMG, Preparing for our Ageing Society: A Discussion Paper (2008) from The Pre-Retirement Association of Greater Manchester.
“Get rid of the multiplicity of agencies providing often limited information and have one stop shops with highly skilled knowledgeable personnel.&rdquo Individual respondent to HMG, Preparing for our Ageing Society: A Discussion Paper (2008).
“Get rid of the multiplicity of agencies providing often limited information and have one stop shops with highly skilled knowledgeable personnel.&rdquo
Though there are a number of sources of information and support for making plans for the future, people have told us that these are often fragmented and disparate and that they can be difficult to find. To address this we will draw together support online, on the telephone and face-to-face from across Government and the third sector and will provide a ‘one stop shop’ for individuals wanting to plan ahead. From 2010 this will provide information about planning for retirement, state pensions, workplace pensions and working longer.
We will link the ‘one stop shop’ to the Money Guidance service, planned for launch in 2010, which will give impartial support to help people plan their finances and make informed financial decisions with confidence.
People will also be signposted on to relevant, more specialised services including The Pension Service, The Pensions Advisory Service and private sector information providers. Access to interactive online tools will enable individuals to enter information about themselves and allow them to review their options and make their own decisions about retirement.
The ‘one stop shop’ will link existing planning services and will include new services as they become available including the NHS Mid-life LifeCheck; the Adult Advancement and Careers Service; and FirstStop, a care and housing advice service. It will also include additional useful information, for example about options for working longer, volunteering, informal adult learning, and what to consider when thinking about moving home or area in preparation for later life.
We will also invest in training to ensure that, where telephone and face-to-face elements exist as part of these services, all staff are able to refer people to the other relevant services that will help them with their preparation.
We will build on this by signposting people to the ‘one stop shop’ at relevant points in their life, for example when they stop receiving Child Benefit. We will also explore options to increase the interactivity of the online service to give a more personalised experience, for example, by enabling people to track their progress against their plans or to sign up for updates and reminders.
Q1. We are launching a new ‘one stop shop’ to bring together services for people planning ahead. In addition to the core services suggested, what else would you like to see included?
To inform people about the opportunities to lead an active and enjoyable later life and encourage them to do so we will launch a new Active at 60 programme of measures to increase participation. We will start at a national level and bring together information from across Government. It will include a range of national opportunities such as access to museums and adult education, as well as entitlements such as a third off rail travel and the free bus pass. To start the Active at 60 programme, from 2010, The Pension Service will provide information to people as they approach State Pension age alongside pension information.
Every local area is unique and provides very different opportunities for people to remain active. For this reason whilst we are developing the national information for people we will also work with local authorities to develop ways for people to receive information on specific opportunities in their communities. We will test the success of providing this information and the extent to which it can increase participation in activities and improve well-being for people over 60 both in urban and a rural areas. We will then share information about successful approaches with other local areas.
Q2. At what stages in your life would it be/have been most useful to receive information about your opportunities and entitlements?
Q3. How would you like to receive information about these opportunities and entitlements; and who would you like to receive this from?
All of the English concessionary bus passes for people over 60 outside London use smart card technology so they could also be used in leisure centres, libraries and for other services with minor adaptations, as outlined in the case study below. We will encourage and showcase best practice in using this technology to help increase participation at a local level. We will also build on this and work with local authorities to test an all-in-one smart card that provides both central and local government entitlements.
Smart cards are already being used in a number of areas, and have real benefits for local people. One example of this is Bracknell Forest, where people over 60 can use the same card to access the library, free bus services, sports clubs, and get discounts from over 100 local businesses. An added benefit is that people do not need to travel into town to register for free bus travel, as was the case before. Instead, it is possible to register for any service that is available on the card at any location that uses them. This is a benefit for people with mobility problems, since it reduces the need for long journeys in order to be able to take up the opportunities that become available at age 60.
Derbyshire has a similar scheme, and includes discounts at over 1,400 local businesses that have signed up to using the card. In addition to this, the library service is included on the cards automatically and 20,000 people registered for the library as a result. The card, combined with communications including a magazine and regular roadshows, has helped to improve participation levels in local services. Derbyshire are looking for opportunities to expand the cards to include, for example, cycle hire or DVD rentals, as well as Government entitlements.
We have recently announced a number of initiatives to increase the range of different activities available to people in their later years.
For many people participation in learning in their later years is an essential social activity. To promote learning opportunities for all we recently published The Learning Revolution,10 a White Paper on informal adult learning. This introduces targeted proposals to help people to make the most of learning opportunities in their later years.
To promote informal adult learning across the country we are introducing a £20 million learning transformation fund. This will support organisations to come together to test new ideas for increasing access and opportunities for informal learning, for example by opening up empty shops to host learning events on the high street, or vouchers to tempt people to try learning something new. We will hold a learning event and festival in October 2009 and we will promote self-organised and self-funded learning with the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education and the Third Age Trust.
We are providing more opportunities to support and develop networks of volunteer community learning champions and learning ambassadors who specialise in encouraging and supporting people to take up learning in later life. We are also promoting the role of informal learning to improve the well-being of people in care.
Margaret Oakley left school when she was 14 and started work the very next day. She returned to learning 74 years later, at 88, the oldest student at her college on a ten-week course for over-55s developing a letter writing hobby she had for many years. “I write to women all over the world and have pen friends in Italy, Germany, Holland, Sweden, the USA and South Africa…I’ve travelled all over to attend conferences and visit pen-friends.” The course is a mix of formal classes and personal study with a tutor to advise and guide. Margaret is currently learning how to undertake book research and how to use a PC, email and the internet.
We have already provided free access for everyone to national museums and galleries in addition to 2,500 regional institutions. Where charges apply, many offer concessions to people in later life. We have also launched a programme of free swimming for people over 60, and around 80 per cent of English councils have taken this up.
We will build on this and create more opportunities, particularly improving the range of physical activities available with clear benefits to people’s health as well as their general wellbeing. We are commissioning 46 national governing bodies of sport to help create a world leading community sport system including plans to encourage the over 50s to participate in sport. Physical activity currently decreases with age and at the moment the fitness industry is not taking full advantage of the market opportunities demographic change represents. We will address this by organising a high-level conference with the major sporting and physical activity governing bodies and industry leaders to encourage them to establish activities and events aimed at the over 50s.
As well as remaining active in their later lives, older people are also playing an increasingly important role in their families. The next chapter sets out what we can do to support them to ensure they continue to have every opportunity to do so.
Notes
