- Increased Reliance on Families
As people live older their reliance on their family increases not just financially but also to offer care and support.
The elderly these days are able to rely on their family however as the birth rate decreases in future the elderly are likely to have little if not no family to rely on.
As a result of this increased reliance families are forced to spend more time and money looking after parents/grandparent etc.
- Increased National Spending
Although the government is spending the same amount of money on the welfare of each elderly individual because the number of elderly individuals has increased this has led to increased national spending.
The elderly are witnessing no difference because they are receiving the same.
The UK as a whole however must forgo more in order to allow the government an increase in expenditure (towards the elderly) as a result the standard of living decreases.
- Increased Reliance on Personal Financial Provision
Despite the fact that the government are spending more on the elderly, what they do spend when divided isn’t substantial enough for a decent quality of life, in other words it is the bare minimum, only enough to survive- just! It is for this reason why the elderly have increased reliance on personal financial provision.
The elderly therefore have less money to spend on leisure activities if some of their saving are required to supplement inadequate government funding.
The UK as a whole feels insulted, as it has to spend vast amounts of money on the elderly who don’t appreciate it (taken for granted). Unfortunately the government is obliged to pay every elderly person equally despite the fact that some are wealthy enough to support themselves and many others.
To meet the ever-increasing funds required to support the elderly, taxpayers are forced to pay more.
The elderly don’t appreciate the increase because their pensions don’t improve the tax increase allows the government to pay everyone equally, and because “everyone” is increasing more money is needed to accommodate this increase.
The UK as a whole is under strain to pay these taxes of which many object to. The standard of living also falls as a result of this increased tax burden.
The elderly are being encouraged back into corporations such as Marks and Spencer’s because they have what the customer is looking for courtesy; knowledge, experience and good customer care in general.
This allows the elderly who are often short of money a better standard of living.
In contrast the young who desire such jobs are being refused, this is leading to unemployment and a diminishing tax paying population.
Once the population have retired the majority move to areas, which are considered to experience a better quality of life. Because these areas are densely populated by those aged 65 or over the government is obliged to cater for their needs.
The elderly require transport, suitable housing (i.e. bungalows), local leisure facilities such as bingo and good accessible health care. As the number of elderly increase more of these facilities are required.
The UK as a whole is affected by internal migration because some areas become “Grey Zones”, and this doesn’t give a balanced civilization (there aren’t facilities available for other age groups), they are also persuaded to spend more in order to allow the development of these facilities, however a lot of jobs are produced in such areas, with the need for medical centres and direct bus routes to nearby towns etc.
- Decreased Standard of Living among the Elderly
As the elderly population increases, the money set aside by the government for the elderly has to be divided by more people this results in a lower amount of money being given to each person leading to a decreased standard of living among the elderly.
The elderly are unable to experience a good quality of life without relying on personal financial provisions.
Pressure is also put on the UK as a whole as it has to support more people of that older age.
The population is not only living longer it is also working longer. Later retirement leads to “Job Stagnation”.
The elderly who work longer have a better quality of life.
The UK as a whole has higher unemployment rates because the young can’t find jobs because the elderly have them and those in job can’t be promoted for the same reason. This is a vicious circle because the elderly won’t be able to work forever and the young who should be paying taxes to provide money for the elderly when they do retire are unemployed due to the elderly.