The Aged and the Nation
The report on old people made by a Committee of Liberals (The Aged and the Nation), though written at a time of transition, is useful in two ways. It is an excellent summary of conclusions reached in other reports in the last two or three years, when interest in the problem of age has at last sprung up ; and it goes further than other reports in advocating a thorough revision of opinion on the capabilities of those over sixty. It repeats the familiar facts that the proportion of the old is increasing—in 1881 4.6 per cent. of the population were over sixty-five ; in 1947, 50.5 per cent.— and that there are insufficient houses suitable for the old so that space is being wasted. The present difficulties of shopping and running homes are stressed ; many older people living alone have actually been found to suffer from Malnutrition. The report breaks fresher ground very usefully when it advocates an entirely new attitude to-those over sixty. The Government has already appealed to older workers to stay at their posts and has offered pension increments to those who do, but the Committee calls for a far more radical change of attitude and doubts if the increments offered will be sufficient. The facts are that, beside the increase in the numbers of the aged, provision for them is costing more, labour is needed urgently, health is better because of improvements in medicine, and jobs are lighter because of improvements in industrial technique. There is the further point that compulsory retirement often leads to a swift deterioration. Meanwhile recent research has shown that the ability to learn is not lost when sixty is passed, and that older workers are more reliable than young. The report urges a publicity campaign to make these facts more generally known, and a suspension of compulsory retirement. This is sense. It also gives a ray of hope to a grim picture.
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