A sobering Parliamentary report has warned that more than four million elderly people in Britain will have no children to help look after them in twenty years’ time.
The report warned that the future looks “extremely hazardous” for Britain’s ageing population, many of whom increasingly will not have children to help care for them in their old age.
The House of Lords adult social care committee said that Britain’s health and social care system would face “collapse” without the help provided by unpaid carers who look after older people and the most vulnerable.
The report urged Ministers not to take it for granted that family members will “simply step in” to the role of caring for and supporting family members who can no longer wash or dress themselves, particularly as an increasing number of UK pensioners no longer have relatives to look after them. Peers cautioned that the situation will exert huge pressure on the UK’s care system going forward.
The report cites estimates that there are already 1.2 million Britons over the age of 65 who do not have children, a figure which is set to increase to two million by the end of this decade, and to double again to reach a staggering four million by 2040.
The report states that for many in this category, the prospect of ageing “causes great fear, as the current system is ill-prepared to respond to their needs”.
This fear, it continues, is not just one of loneliness, but also “tangible challenges” of ageing without children, including undertaking low-level support tasks, personal tasks, and navigating the complex social care system.
It adds that: “The future looks extremely hazardous for people ageing without children, and yet they are a fast-growing group”.
It also makes reference to the “invisibility” of the adult social care sector, pointing out that the adult social care workforce, which has 1.62 million filled posts, is bigger than the NHS – with a workforce totalling 1.37 million.
Tha adult social care sector comprises 17,900 organisations, and there are a record 165,000 job vacancies. The sector received just £17.1 billion in public funding this year for elderly care – compared to a £153 billion for the NHS. Additionally, spending has decreased by 12 per cent in the last ten years, as council budgets have fallen.
The problematic situation means that as many as 2.6 million people in the UK currently have “unmet needs” and are confronted with the “stark” choice of having to function without receiving help, pay for it themselves, or rely on family members or friends for help.
Speaking last week, Baroness Andrews, the committee chairman, referred to the “invisibility” of the sector.
“In this report we have revealed the impact that the invisibility of the adult social care sector as a whole has on the way we perceive and provide for adult social care,” she said, adding:
“Our recommendations are intended to bring those who draw on and provide unpaid care into the daylight and that starts with changing the perceptions around care, providing the realistic financial and workforce strategies that are long overdue, and planning for a system responsive to present needs and resilient for the future.
All that will help the unpaid carer now so often at risk of poverty and ill health with a better future. But we want a better present for them too – and our specific recommendations for their support will deliver that”.
A demographic crisis has been recorded globally. According to the WHO, the global population aged over 60 years is set to almost double from 12 per cent to 22 per cent between 2015 and 2050.
A report from the Department of Health published at the end of November, meanwhile, provided cause for concern, as it revealed that Ireland’s population is ageing faster than anywhere else in Europe, as births here fall.
The number of people in the State aged 85 years and over is projected to hit 222,000 in the next twenty years. According to Age Action, the estimated population of Ireland in 2022 includes more than one million people (1.04 million) aged 60 or older, bringing unprecedented challenges.