BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

IF YOU live outside South Devon, England, you probably won't have seen my Torbay Times Pensioners Platform column for September-October 2015, so here it is....

 

IN RECENT WEEKS further evidence has emerged showing that Britain’s seniors are being systematically targeted by high pressure sales techniques. However, the organisations behind those often unscrupulous methods have got it all wrong. We UK pensioners are nowhere near as well off as they believe us to be. In fact, the wholly inaccurate but, nevertheless, widely held perception that the Baby Boomer generation has accumulated wealth at the expense of the younger generations, is now being roundly condemned and refuted by a powerful group of charities.

Why, even the celebrity cook Jamie Oliver has changed his tune. Not long ago, he was blaming UK seniors in general, and the Baby Boomer generation in particular, for all that is wrong with Britain today. Now, on the front page of the September edition of Saga magazine (above) he’s pictured next to a caption that reads. “We’re getting it wrong with our older people.” Better late than never Mr Oliver!

But let’s get back to the charities working to dismantle the belief that we UK pensioners have never had it so good. The charities involved are Age UK; the Alzheimer’s Society; Carers UK and the International Longevity Centre, and they’ve called themselves the Ready for Ageing Alliance. Together, they have compiled a report which suggests the term “Baby Boomer” is a potentially dangerous generalisation, as it covers a diverse group of people who only have age in common.

The report also claims that there is a “growing media perception” that the Baby Boomer generation has an easy life, at the expense of young people. The resulting impression is that all Baby Boomers are comfortably-off, yet we’re only too happy to grab every cash hand-out from the government, while the younger generations are left to pick-up the tab. According to the Alliance (and, no doubt, the vast majority of we Baby Boomers too), this is a myth, but giving it substance through the media has the potential to hurt both young and old alike. The Alliance has, therefore, focused on this and a number of other myths it wishes to dispel.

Firstly, there is a common misconception that Baby Boomers will enjoy a comfortable retirement because of their generous pensions. However, the Ready for Ageing Alliance report argues this is a myth. Around 28% of those aged 55-64 – approximately two million people – have no private pension savings whatsoever. According to the report, even those who do have a private pension are likely to discover it won’t go far. On average, such a pension will equate to an annual income of around £7,500 and, as the report adds, such a sum is “woefully short of what is needed to secure an adequate income in retirement.”

On the subject of early retirement, the Ready for Ageing Alliance report is similarly scathing, by refuting the claim that Baby Boomers are so well off they can retire early. This is simply not the case, and the report confirms that nearly 75% of people between the ages of fifty and state pension entitlement age are still in employment, while just seven in one hundred are inactive because they have retired.

Then there’s the old bone of contention relating to housing wealth. Baby Boomers are widely perceived as having gained the biggest advantages as a result of the housing boom. But that’s not true either, because the report shows that, out of the owner-occupier homes lived-in by someone aged between 55 and 64, less than half are owned outright. Moreover, almost a quarter of that same age group are in rented accommodation, and that’s up from just 18% ten years ago.

 

Many of us will have seen the tongue-in-cheek car sticker saying, “I’m spending my children’s inheritance”, and the Alliance report confirms that Baby Boomers are being accused of just that. However, the report goes-on to suggest this is unfair, because some people have limited wealth, while others plan to bequeath money to their loved ones in their wills. This point is reinforced in the report through verified statistics showing that a mere 20% of grandparents in England aged over fifty passed-on cash totalling nearly £650 million to their grandchildren in 2010.

 

And while we’re on the subject of facts and figures, the Baby Boomer generation is often accused of being selfish. Thankfully, the Alliance report goes some way to disproving that claim too, by pointing-out that there are around 1.5 million people aged 65-74 who volunteer. Yes, and I’m one of ‘em! And I volunteer because, it’s not only keeping my mind active, but it’s also keeping other people entertained. At the age of 69 that’s worth more to me than any pay packet.

So … better late than never … the myths about the cushy life we Baby Boomers are living are, at last, being exposed for what they really are … pure fantasy! And it’s all thanks to the Ready for Ageing Alliance.

Photo: courtesy of Pixabay.com