Labour needs a bigger vision for older people

IDS is encouraging pensioners to give away their benefits presumably because ministers cannot agree on a more coherent approach. To govern is to choose unless, of course, you are part of a tired and fragile coalition when any fudge will do.

There is an opportunity for the Labour party to lead a principled conversation about policies for older people and to develop a distinctive set of propositions on this critical territory. We know that the combination of economic and demographic trends make existing patterns of provision unsustainable but we need to talk about more than bus passes. The Labour party should offer a radical new ambition for our later years recognising that older people are an asset not a problem and that we all have a right to a positive retirement. We should be talking about practical measures which are worthwhile on their own and which promise, in aggregate, a better future for us all.

1. Releasing capital from home ownership is a sensible option for many retirees but too important to be left to the market. Private schemes now offer a poor deal for the owner and minimal incentive. A Labour government should either regulate the market or establish its own scheme.
2. The rising generation of retirees were the first to leave home in large numbers and live together whilst studying in other towns. It was efficient, convenient and fun. We should support the recreation of this model when families are flown. A Labour government should consider fiscal incentives and other support for encouraging and facilitating the development of shared ownership and living with friends. A housing coop could extend to sharing the costs of domestic help, home maintenance and even personal care all tailored to the needs and the preferences of the group and all owned and controlled by its members.
3. There are broadly two phases to retirement with a period of activity giving way to a period of increasing dependency. Health professionals now know that exercising and eating well in our 40s and 50s has a particularly significant impact on the balance between the two. Prevention and public health has consistently been a very small part of the NHS. It needs to grow because preventative action saves lives and saves money.  It should be a national priority for the next Labour government.
4. Keeping active in retirement also helps to keep us healthy. If we valued and sought to benefit from the accumulated wisdom of our elders, as some societies do but ours does not, we would improve the quality and even the length of our active lives and achieve positive outcomes for the wider community. We need to talk about how we harness this extraordinary resource in our institutions and our neighbourhoods. This is much more fundamental than a better organised version of the disappointing Experience Corps or a rebranded iteration of the vacuous Big Society. A strong and purposeful vision needs funding and infrastructure, which Big Society never had, and it needs a bigger narrative and a wider debate than just another funding programme.  We need to talk about a new social contract promising security and opportunities to contribute in our later years
5. And then when the end does come almost everybody would prefer to die at home. Infact the overwhelming majority of us will die in hospital. This is inhumane and also stupid. There are strong economic arguments and, as the proportion of older people grows year on year, even stronger political ones for developing a radical and ambitious strategy for end of life care in the community. 60s kids vote and they will not go gentle.
6. The development of this kind of thinking is of fundamental importance to the economy and to the lives of a huge and rapidly growing proportion of the electorate. A Labour government’s strategy for older people should not be scattered across Whitehall but led, as Andrew Lewin has written on this blog from an independent Ministry for Older People. It should be founded on the twin principles that older people are a national asset and that old age should be enjoyed.

Bus passes matter but they should be one part of a bigger conversation now and, ultimately, one part of a new deal for older people in 2015: A new compact that delivers financial security and opportunities to contribute, not one conditioned on the other but side by side for a fulfilling retirement.