Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
Posted: January 20th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Legal - employment, Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney, Retirement | Comments Off
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By Catriona Watt, Fox lawyers
When BBC programme Countryfile moved from its daytime slot to a primetime slot on a Sunday evening, three of its female presenters were replaced by younger candidates. Ms O’Reilly (aged 51) was one of those dropped from the programme and subsequently brought a claim in the employment tribunal arguing that her removal from Countryfile amounted to direct discrimination on the grounds of her age and sex. The tribunal rejected Ms O’Reilly’s sex discrimination claim but held that her removal from Countryfile did amount to direct age discrimination. The tribunal noted that it was clear that Ms O’Reilly’s age was a significant factor in the BBC’s decision not to retain her for the primetime show. If she had been 10 to 15 years younger it would have given her proper consideration.
Age discrimination can, in certain circumstances, be objectively justified as “a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”. In Ms O’Reilly’s case, the tribunal held that the BBC’s age discriminatory treatment of her was not objectively justified. Although the BBC’s wish to appeal to a primetime audience, including younger viewers, was a legitimate aim, it was not proportionate to remove older presenters to pander to the assumed prejudice of such viewers.
It is notable in this case that the tribunal gave such short-shrift to the idea that the BBC could justify replacing older presenters with younger ones to help achieve its legitimate aim of attracting a wider audience. This is a clear indication to employers that where they do implement practices which directly or indirectly discriminate against employees on the grounds of their age to achieve what the employer says is a “legitimate aim” for the business, the employer will have to work much harder to show that the practice is indeed proportionate.
This case is also significant in showing that employees are increasingly aware of, and indeed increasingly willing to pursue, their rights under the age discrimination legislation introduced in 2006 and now enshrined in the Equality Act 2010.
This is a general account of the law as it currently stands. It is always best to seek legal advice for specific queries
Posted: January 17th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Care, Grandparents, Retirement | 3 Comments »
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As people live longer, pension pots shrink and more families find themselves caring not only for their own children but also parents and grandparents, some sort of communal living seems inevitable for all of us.
This represents a huge sea change in how we live in the UK. For people born after the Second World War, the nuclear family was often the norm. People moved out of the parental home as soon as they could and many moved away from their home town. The ubiquitous “modern executive detached” became the home of choice for the aspirant middle classes. People expected older relatives to move to sheltered housing or care homes when they became frail rather than move in with them. Children were often sent to nurseries or childminders. In other words, there was a certain autonomy between the generations.
But this is changing. As the populations ages at the same time as public finances are shot, more and more people are finding themselves responsible for caring for one or more sets of parents and grandparents who often live some distance away.
At the other end of the scale, many of today’s young adults are being supported by their parents whether by being helped out with a house deposit or school or university fees or even by providing childcare allowing them to work.
Finances are being squeezed every which way. Add to this, concerns about job security, pensions coming up short, high student debt and house prices outstripping the incomes of only the most affluent and the result is that families are under severe pressure.
So, is the answer to live together and share the burdens? Whilst there is a certain economic sense to clubbing together, there are many families to whom such an arrangement will be an anathema. Many will be reluctant to give up their own homes and hard won independence in this way. Many simply don’t get on well enough. Much of our current housing stock is not conducive to intergenerational living. Many modern homes are too small, cramped and inflexible. Larger homes are very expensive and may be unaffordable unless all the family members have money to put in the pot.
Another possibility is that people join together to buy a large house and live together as mutually supportive friends. This is a common aspiration amongst my contemporaries. This has the attraction of living with people you ostensibly like, although you would need to choose carefully. The friends with whom you partied in your 20s or shared school runs in your 30s are not necessarily the people to share your later years with. Whilst you might all move in with good intentions, what happens if you fall out or one person’s care needs or circumstances change dramatically? Do you boot them out or all club together to care for them?
Another alternative is the supportive community model, The Big Society idea which is all the rage in Whitehall at the moment (although no one yet has come up with a decent definition of what it means). Here communities, ie your street, your town become much more mutually supportive. For instance, people get together to support an elderly neighbour with shopping, cooking and cleaning. But this sort of activity would have to be heavily organised in order to be effective and it also relies on huge amounts of goodwill and people in the locality having sufficient spare time to volunteer .
Perhaps we should all move to retirement villages where the organisational structures are already in place? In the UK we have been slow to embrace this concept and it is certainly an unpopular proposition amongst my friends, based on maybe outdated notions of “Old People’s Homes”.
Ultimately we will all need to find an arrangement which suits our own families. But I cannot help but think that the days of the nuclear family are numbered. Community, if not the extended family, has to be the way forward.
What do you think? Do you agree?
Posted: November 6th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: About retirement - Howard Croft, Retirement | No Comments »
Dear Philippa,
What sounds like an interesting career opportunity has presented itself. My clever economist friend has come up with the idea of setting up a local – very local, south Ryedale – TV station that will broadcast only a few hours a week over the internet. The idea is robustly to grapple with topics of pressing local interest and conduct ferocious interviews with local worthies, not all of whom are all that worthy to be frank. He wants me to be the man on the sofa with the hard stare and the forensic manner – a sort of Ryedale Paxo, though the truth is I’m more Melvyn Bragg. I am too ready for such a purpose. But if MI5 want me I may not be able to fit it in, what with nipping off to Talin and similar every end and turn for a bit of spying.
I have been promised a fragrant bimbo who will sit beside me on the sofa and gaze at me. I’m not sure about this – I think Selina Scott, who farms near us, might be more use, what with all her experience of grilling victims and knowing where the camera is. I don’t know her myself, though I know her mother by sight, but I greatly admire the way she punished the Beeb to the tune of a hundred big ones for their cruel ageism.
Celebrity beckons, I can see it all. As I promenade along Finkle Street of a Saturday morning attractive and wealthy women of a certain age will stalk me, some throwing nether garments at me to get my attention. I am already practising avoiding eye-contact with passers-by, the dreaded hoi polloi, rather as you see celebs doing in Harley Street as they make their way to consult a society proctologist. I’m going to be good at this. I shall arrive on the scene a new matinee idol, reassuringly fading. I may take to wearing spats – they’re buggers for spats are women of a certain age.
Not much has happened yet – the
dot.com address has been purchased, political fires ready to put under pompous bottoms are being prepared, but not much else. There will be no shortage of issues with which to harry and taunt the political establishment – lunatic car park policies, delusional attempts to get Harvey Nicks to open a branch in Malton, the draconian banning of “A” boards from footpaths outside shops, the insane bloating of local government with foolish non-jobs.
I’ll keep you posted on this one. Spy or matinee idol? It could go either way. But I am drawn to being part of a grey army of limping spooks, subtle and sly, winkling out strategic secrets and instantly forgetting them. Oh yes, and grousing in the goody with dangerous Russian bimbos. With rheumy old eyes, creaking limbs and failing faculties I stand ready to be of service to HMQ. Or loll on a sofa with Selina.
Best wishes
Howard
Posted: October 21st, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: About retirement - Howard Croft, Health, Retirement | No Comments »
Dear Philippa,
At my local GP surgery they have a scoreboard that announces how many appointments have been missed in the preceding month. A year or so ago it was running at over three thousand, but they seem to have got it down to fewer than two thousand, possibly a reflection of seasonal variation. It’s a medium sized practice, with, I suppose 8 doctors and half a dozen nurses. Assuming all the staff, doctors and nurses together, handle four appointments an hour and work 48 weeks a year it works out at over a hundred thousand patient encounters a year, probably more, it means that between a quarter and a third of made appointments are missed without notification, the workload of two to four doctors/nurses depending on how you do the numbers.
This is a huge amount of waste, but what to do? You could introduce a system of over-booking along the lines employed by airlines, but that would involve bumping patients at the end of day and it would introduce delays for the compliant without inconveniencing the delinquent. Or you could fine for the no-shows, which would provide income that the practice could use to buy equipment, but it would introduce an element of financial transaction into the doctor-patient relationship that the doctors I am sure would find unpalatable and resist. My own preferred solution would be to confiscate the cars of the guilty and put them in a crusher but I gather that there are some legal difficulties with this. And there would be an unfortunate side-effect; doctors would increasingly be seen as junkyard dogs rather than relievers of pain and savers of lives, which they obviously prefer.
I noticed the latest number when I visited the nurses’ station for my annual blood pressure check (135/75, thank you for asking – the blood pressure of the athlete I never was), which turned out to be rather more than that. After I had passed the BP test with First Class Honours, Sister Helen said, “Would you pop on the scales for me?” My friend Tim took me racing in York a couple of weeks ago, again as my carer on the disabled rail card, and as we walked along the platform looking for an empty carriage he bawled I WANT YOU TO GET ON THE TRAIN FOR ME. It’s odd how carers and health workers always want you to do things for them. All over the country every day miserable patients are exhorted by nurses to open their bowels “for me” – infantalising, somehow.
Anyway, at the weigh-in I got only a poor Third and promised half-heartedly to cut down on the fresh cream slices to which I confessed, rather like the traveller at Customs admitting to an ounce of tobacco over the limit in the hope that such openness would impress the officer and distract his attention away from the parcel of Krugerrands. Then came the question about alcohol. The days are gone when I could with a straight face own up to the occasional sherry at funerals so I put my cards, most of them at least, boldly claiming twenty-eight units, which I think is reasonable. Like Clive of India when confronted with his considerable corruption, I stood there astounded by my own moderation. She tried to negotiate me down to twenty-six units but I held the line. I like it, I said, I can afford it, and no-one any longer expects me to get out of bed in a morning to any serious purpose – apart from the dog at 6.30 – so it’s not going to happen. She gave in, looked at me with a mixture of disgust and amusement and told me I’m as bad as her father. Never met him, but he sounds like a good chap to me.
Best wishes
Posted: October 6th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Care, Grandparents, Retirement | Comments Off
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Millions of British people are struggling to care for elderly parents and grandchildren in a growing number of four generation families.
An ageing population means that thirty per cent of UK adults are now part of four generation families fueling a rapidly growing ‘sandwich generation’ – the name given to them because they are caught between younger and older family members and unable to spread their time effectively.
A survey has revealed that a massive 65% of ‘sandwich generation’ Britons are struggling to balance the homecare needs of both the oldest and the youngest generations of their family.
Nearly two in three that have already retired said they feel they are too busy caring for other people with 35 per cent admitting to feeling overwhelmed by the pressures they are facing.
The survey was conducted by live in care work specialists, Helping Hands, to highlight the pressures ageing British people are facing trapped in this dual caring role. On average grandparents with parents still alive were spending two and a half days a week helping out with childcare or helping their elderly parents do things such as get to hospital appointments, pay bills and do the shopping.
One in three were also afraid to travel in case either their parents or grandchildren needed them.
Lindsey Edgehill, Care Services Manager for Helping Hands, said: “Instead of enjoying the so-called ‘best years of your life’, people approaching retirement are under more pressure than ever. We are seeing an increasing number of people in their 50s and 60s coming to us to find out more about home care services and live-in care for their elderly parents because the pressure is simply becoming too much.”
“25 per cent of people we talked to in our research identified guilt as the main reason for not considering alternative home health care options but the reality is that taking all the responsibility yourself is not always the best option either for you or your loved ones.”
The World Alzheimer Report released recently highlighted that the cost of informal care (unpaid care provided by family members and others) accounts for 42 per cent of the total cost of dementia worldwide, underlining the huge responsibility our ‘sandwich generation’ carers are facing.
The demands placed on the ’sandwich generation’ have led to one in five suffering ill health and 18 per cent admitted that all the time spent acting as a carer for the rest of the family was effecting their relationship with their partner. One in five unlucky people said they were tired all the time.
Women are feeling the strain more than men with nearly half saying that they feel that they have no time to themselves. One in three women thought they spent too much of their time caring for their families while only a fifth of men felt the same.
Men were also much more likely to look into getting help than women were with one in four women saying that they feel it’s their responsibility to care for their family.
23 per cent are supporting their parents at an average spend of £138 a month whilst one in three are having to support grandchildren financially with an average spend of £118 a month. Most of this money is spent on food, clothes, bills and saving for their grandchildren’s future.
Fourteen per cent also admitted that they felt their quality of life was not as they felt it should be as a result. More than half wished they had more time to go travelling and 48 per cent wanted more time to spend in the garden.
For more information about Helping Hands visit www.helpinghandshomecare.co.uk
Posted: September 5th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: About retirement - Howard Croft, Retirement | Comments Off
Dear Philippa,
My mobile/cell phone is at last a goner. I inherited it from Helen several years ago when, hungry for more apps, she went in for a then must-have killer device. It has been playing up for several months, holding a charge for only a day just on standby but only if I was careful always to have it charging, indoors and in the car, but I managed. Now I can get it from the socket in the kitchen to the fag lighter in the car before it dies, but only if the car is in the garage – if it’s in the street, there’s no chance. As there is no signal in the house, which has thick walls and is in a poorly served, sparsely populated area,I can pick up messages only when I’m driving about which is of course illegal. If I were a cyclist I would be OK, as John Snow demonstrated by using his while cycling without lights the wrong way along a one-way pavement, on his way home from the pub. But at least he’s green.
I was never fond of the thing if I’m honest, but I did use it, mostly for reading interesting messages from Vodaphone, but now faced with the possibility of replacing it I’m a bit torn. I’m not out touch, not really; I do after all check my e-mails most Thursdays, but I do resent the expense. So what to do? Do I “go commando” (notice my grasp of street argot), or do I go the whole hog and invest in a Raspberry? Why, by the way, do techies like to name stuff after fruit, in the case of Apple whole companies? I bet there’ll never be a Tomato device; I read somewhere that being well-informed is knowing that tomatoes are fruit, being wise is knowing not to put one in a fruit salad, and techies are nothing if not wise.
But the speed of technological change is making me edgy, and I cannot decide. What if I go in for the Raspberry, all set to make videos and take snaps at Christenings, read e-mails on and watch telly by, and the following week along come some new apps that will tell me when the casserole is done and diagnose faults in my car, how foolish will I look then? When I started work there was one desk-top calculator for each division of the company, one photocopier for the whole company. When I was sent to Africa for a few years I had to get special permission to buy a pocket calculator to take with me (£50 in 1975), and when I got back in four years later they were giving them away at petrol stations, the Telex was on its way out and the fax machine was about to arrive – now pretty much gone of course. But that was nothing to what is happening now.
I have made some nervous enquiries at Car Phone Warehouse, but I was totally flummoxed by the enthusiastic sales patter of the skinny teenager specially selected for the speed with which he could discomfort old farts like me. Is there, I wanted to know, a model that operates only as a telephone, because it was becoming clear that the multiple apps would actually make it impossible for me to make a simple call. He looked at me as if I had asked where I could purchase a child to send up my chimney.
So here I am, still with my early Nokia with a flat battery. I’ll have to do something, perhaps pay an infant to make the decision for me and miserably cough up some painful monthly charge that would be better invested in merlot. Or toss the Nokia in the bin, the recycle bin obviously, retreat into oblivion and go back to writing letters.
Best wishes
Howard
Posted: September 3rd, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Inclusive design, Legal - employment, Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney, Press coverage, Retirement | No Comments »
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Flexibility is the key to making employment an attractive and healthy option for all employees regardless of age.
Read our legal expert Catriona Watt’s article about how follwing the Finnish example might be the way forward in this month’s Mabels online magazine.
Posted: July 20th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Retirement | No Comments »
The Retirement Show 2010 at Olympia last weekend was its usual, sometimes startling, mix of opportunity (travel, park homes, dancing and painting lessons) and health (information about bowel cancer, diabetes) with some financial planning from the Show’s main sponsor (Prudential) thrown in.
Highlights this year for me were:
1. Advice
The Financial Services Authority has produced a really useful “Guide to Retirement” which promises “No selling. No jargon. Just the facts”. It aims to demystify the financial side of moving from work into retirement, explaining the steps and the choices you can make and covering topics such as pensions. entitlement, tax, saving, heathcare and bereavement. Call the FSA Moneymadeclear Helpline 0300 500 5000 for a copy or visit http://www.moneymadeclear.org.uk/
2. Fulfil your lifelong dream
Stannah, the stairlift company, have launched the Stannah Think Again Fund which is open to anyone over 50 who wants to fulfil a lifelong dream. Previous winners have included Barbara Hawthorne, 76 who fulfilled her lifelong ambition of taking to the skies and learning how to fly. Tess McMahon, 56, spent a day learning how to surf and Derek Davenport, 86, bravely jumped out of a plane at 12000 feet. Johnny Sheehan, 64, turned his dream into a reality by funding his first ever play. Apply online at http://thinkagainfund.stannahstairlifts.co.uk/
3. Artists’ materials
As our local artist and craft supplies shops has recently closed down, The SAA (Society for All Artists) catalogue caught my eye. A comprehensive 163 pages of quality painting and drawing materials plus books, DVDs and courses. There are impressive discounts for members. For more information, visit http://www.saa.co.uk/ which includes details of the dedicated TV channel and members’ gallery.
4. Fashion Show
One of the more unexpected highlights of the afternoon was the fashion show by charity, Sue Ryder Care featuring donated clothes charmingly modelled by volunteers. As my student companion commented “ The clothes were surprisingly fashionable and well put together” (which, I might add, is praise indeed from that quarter!).
5. And finally
The climbing wall. A new addition to this year’s show, sponsored by www.laterlife.com, the climbing wall certainly proved a talking point and whilst no-one was daring to scale its heights whilst I was there, I understand that several brave souls did have a go.
The Retirement Show is still a relative newcomer to the exhibition calender and is to a certain extent still finding its feet. I would have liked to have seen more technology on offer, a chance to play with the Ipad for instance and some more examples of the latest telecare solutions. I do like the “have a go” ethos, whether it’s scaling the climbing wall or trying out the samba or watercolours. Walking round a park home, does make you think whether this is the sort of place you might want to live or holiday in.
Did you go to the Retirement Show? What did you think?
Posted: July 6th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Grandparents, Retirement | No Comments »
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Firhall, built in 2003 outside Nairn in the Highlands, is billed as “a new direction in modern country living”. The village caters primarily for those people over 45 years old who “no longer have the same direct commitment to their families” and who now wish to enjoy an active relaxed lifestyle where others handle maintenance and management responsibility. Most controversially, this means that no resident children are permitted.
Grandchildren and the children of friends can visit and stay, but there are limits on how often this happens.
Yesterday, BBC Radio 4’s Far From the Madding Child, presenter Kati Whitaker looked at how things have turned out since Firhall opened, asking if it is desirable, or even practical, to encourage the sort of settlements where older people are segregated from the rest of society.
Residents say Firhall offers peace and quiet; one resident admitted to not liking “children’s noise”.
Estate agent Lesley-Ann Fraser told the programme-makers of the media’s initial reaction to the development, saying “The media hyped it up to such an extent you would really think anybody who wanted to live in a village like this was an ogre and they hated children”.
David Eccles, chairman of Firhall Trust, said in reality nothing could be further from the truth. He said many of those who chose to live in the village have grandchildren and the youngsters were always welcome to visit. Mr Eccles added: “Living here gives a certain measure of peace and quiet which is what many of us look forward to as we are getting older.”
What do you think? One quick look at the village website http://www.caledonianretreats.co.uk reveals that Firhall is indeed a beautiful place – well built, well maintained houses and apartments are set amongst immaculate landscaped grounds amidst the stunning Highlands scenery. It is not difficult to see why people would choose to live here. And the emphasis on an active lifestyle and choice in retirement is very alluring.
However, to me there is something rather discomforting about the segregation of any part of society. I am not sure how I would feel if my children’s grandparents chose to live somewhere like Firhall where the brochure talks of residents who “no longer have the same direct commitment to their families”. As the number of people getting older rises and public funds become ever more diminished, families are likely to have to fall back on their own resources and the incidence of intergenerational dependency will rise. It may become desirable or necessary for the generations to live together to share resources, including childcare but also the care of an older person. But a village like Firhall allows no such flexibility.
I am also rather intrigued by the 45 year age requirement. Not only does this seem very young to “no longer have a direct commitment to your family” but as women increasingly have children later in life, this could mean accepting a “no children” lifestyle before your child bearing years are over.
Interested to hear what you think.
Posted: June 28th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Health, Miscellaneous, Retirement | Comments Off
The Sunday Times reported this weekend that scientists have discovered that the human brain can improve with advancing years.
While short term memory may decline as we age, long term memory, vocabulary, emotional intelligence and social skills may all get better – which doesn’t seem a bad pay off.
The researchers found that older people are more likely to be rational than young people because their brains are less susceptible to surges of the “feelgood” hormone dopamine that can lead to impulsive reactions. Older people are able to retain a range of skills effectively. Expert knowledge such as that needed for hobbies is stored in brain cells called dendritic spikes which seem to be protected against ageing. Also despite slower brain speeds, older people solve problems more efficiently than the young, drawing on cognitive templates of how they resolved similar problems in the past. Not sure how much of this is new, really.
However, the findings are supported by the fact that many of the most influential people in business, law and science are in their 50s and 60s, prompting the demand for the retirement age to be lifted in some professions. Judges, for instance, are pressing for a change in the law to allow senior members to remain in post beyond the age of 70.
So how do we go about boosting brain power? Mental and physical exercise, apparently. Eric Jones, 73 from North Wales goes skydiving at least 10 times a year. He credits his active lifestyle with keeping his mind sharp and is quoted as saying ” Extreme sports have helped keep me young in the mind. There’s an edge to sporting activities – you have to be totally focused. My ability to think on my feet and my long term memory have certainly improved with age”.
Think I might just stick with crosswords…
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