This later life - 24

Sian Phillips, nearing 70, explains in The Times why she turns down younger roles:

‘It’s the way to kill off a career…. and cuts you off from all sorts of interesting parts.  It all becomes about your appearance, with peopLe saying, ‘”Oh she looks good for her age,” which is boring.’ 

Omar Sharif, 72, talks about being an exladykiller in The Guardian:

‘I don’t want to be a slave to passion any more. I quit bridge and now it’s the same with the girls.’ 

Don’t know if the quote is the real thing, but Nancy Astor at the age of 80, is supposed to have uttered the following divine statement :

'I used to worry about the things I wouldn't be able to do when I got older. But now I am older, I find I don't want to do them anyway'. 

A golden handshake if you work beyond official retirement age. That’s the latest Government promise. Deferring a state pension claim for five years could earn someone with £100 a week state pension the lump sum of £30,201 before tax. Women would be able to start postponing at 60, according to one report. 

Nearly 1500 ‘extra care’ housing units in various parts of the UK are being planned to make life more comfortable for older people. The units have their own front door but also get 24-hour support, including cooking, cleaning and healthcare services. The units are seen as alternatives to residential care, and help those who are elderly and infirm retain greater independence. 

Potential for Internet in sheltered housing is the subject of a new Joseph Rowntree Foundation report. Internet Use In Sheltered Housing is based on a study of two sheltered accommodation sites in North London – one with Internet provision and digital television and one without. The report investigates how the Internet is used for delivering social care to older people in their homes, covering such aspects as tele-shopping and banking, and the potential of digital television. The report is available as a free PDF and Word download from
http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/details.asp?pubID=583. A paperback, priced £11.95 plus p&p, is also available online from the website. 

Help the Aged comments on current trends in Home Care Services in England and sees a potential crisis of dependency among older people in Britain today.

•      The pool of people receiving essential, basic home care has decreased by 10 per cent over the last four years.

•      Services are being skewed towards intensive packages of care to a small group of older people in extreme need.

•      Low level home care of just a couple of hours a week is the loser in this scheme. Without help at home, many older people are forced to face to the prospect of moving out of home and into residential care.

•      This has public expenditure consequences, as local authorities fund around 70 per cent of care home residents.

As a consequence, Help the Aged is calling for social care spending to be a priority in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review, so that older people have the help they need to carry on living at home. For further reading, see:

http://www.dh.gov.uk/Publications
AndStatistics/fs/en

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