Tag Archives: end of life

We need to talk about how the UK supports its growing number of older people, and in particular about the end of life. One of the many weaknesses of British politics is that its structure does not make it easy to link related issues, But the age of retirement, pensions for the elderly, the rising proportion of the NHS budget spent on those over 70, the cost of drugs, social care, palliative care, and the debate over assisted dying, are all interlinked – above all by the pressures they all put (now and potentially) on the UK budget.

The problem of providing and funding long-term care for the elderly was grasped by (Liberal Democrat minister) Stephen Williams during the coalition government, but weakly supported by Conservatives and opposed by the Labour opposition.

Theresa May as Prime Minister tried again to address the balance between private and public funding of long-term care, only for Labour to attack it as a ‘Death Tax.’ Since then care provision has drifted and costs have risen. The dominance of the private sector has grown as many cash-strapped local authorities have sold off their care homes, as charities have retreated from the sector and private equity has bought into it – driving up what Councils have to pay and holding down carers’ wages. Enterprising private providers have built retirement villages and apartment blocks for the well-to-do, but there is little new provision for poorer retirees. Local Council budgets are now weighed down by social care costs to the exclusion of other needs.

Right-wing attacks on the size of Britain’s welfare budget have omitted to mention that nearly 60% of welfare spending now goes on pensions: 8% of GDP, up from 2% after World War 2 as life expectancy has risen. When Lloyd George introduced old-age pensions, less than half the population lived long enough to benefit. Many of us now draw our pensions for 25 years or more, and medical advances will continue to lengthen life expectancy (and increase what the NHS spends on elderly people).

Liberal Democrats in the coalition government were proud of our commitment to the ‘triple lock’ on pensions. 15 years of pensions rising faster than inflation have shrunk pensioner poverty and enriched those also benefitting from post-employment pensions (like me). The case for ending the triple lock is strong – although the temptation for opposition parties to oppose the government doing so may still be stronger. The case for increasing taxes on better-off pensioners is even stronger; we benefit from a range of financial concessions but pay a lower rate of taxation than those in employment – because we no longer pay national insurance. But there’s little chance that Reform and the Conservatives, the parties of older people, would accept the logic of any increase, faced with the wrath that the Mail and the Telegraph would unleash.