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Eighty two years of age and another sixty three to go – imagine it....(!?)

Around my mother-in-law’s 82nd birthday a few months ago, the media reported on the age of Mbah Gotho of Indonesia, reportedly born on 31 December 1870 and a full 145 years of age. It was qui...


Postponing the pension: are we all working longer?

The 2014 Pension Act included a provision for regular - every 6 years - reviews of the State Pension Age (SPA), and in March this year, the government published the terms of reference for the first...


The UK’s Ageing Population: translating academic evidence into policy.

By 2014, the average age of the UK population exceeded 40 for the first time. Approximately 75% of UK population growth by 2040 was projected to be in the 60 and over age group, and the number of t...


All human beings are intergenerational

In a society that focuses on individual needs and rights, the notion that intergenerational relationships underpin all human beings is challenging. Intergenerationality does not erase or diminish o...


Complex Decision Making

In a speech last May, Andy Haldane, Chief Economist for the Bank of England, admitted that he was unable to understand pensions because they were so complicated.  Moreover, he suggested countl...


Finland and early exit: sustainability, adequacy and fairness

It has been reported that Finland plans to introduce a policy that would allow long-term unemployed people over the age of 60 the option to retire early at an estimated cost to the Finnish Governme...


Long-term care systems for sub-Saharan Africa*

The international debate on the challenges of integrated long-term care (LTC) provision for older persons is not only an agenda point for the ageing developed populations of the world but also an a...


Living longer lives…..living shorter lives

Knowing how long we can expect to live is a difficult enough issue (and yet we are expected to have a go at this in order to secure a suitable pension pot for our old age), but the way news about o...


Grandad is coming……

In the 20th century, as the populations of more developed countries aged, an increasing body of research on grandparents and on the roles of grandparents in the modern family built up, especially i...


Here’s what would have happened if Brexit vote was weighted by age

Britain’s youngest voters will spend about 60 years living with the consequences of Brexit – even though the majority of them voted Remain. Wouldn’t it be fairer if their vote was...


Home sweet home? The gap between housing supply and demand for an ageing population

Recent research by the International Longevity Centre (ILC), Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG), the Foresight Future of an Ageing Population project and the 2016 Homeowners Surv...


Do you remember the Spirit Level?

Do you remember the Spirit Level, written by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson in 2009?  It advanced what is still widely seen as an intrinsically plausible theory that more equal societies &...


Brexit and the Role of Migration for an Ageing UK.

The British Referendum of June 23rd 2016 is set to be a defining moment in British history.  Whether to be reconsidered or not, whether to result in a stronger or diminished UK and EU, Anal...


The Survivor to Thriver strengths-based intervention for survivors of childhood sexual abuse: It’s not just about what’s wrong it’s also about what strong

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a devastating phenomenon with documented long-term effects (such as mental health problems, problems with self-esteem, difficulties in building trust in relationship...


Brexit: “A bewildering act of self-harm”

Where were you when you heard the news?  As the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford noted  in the early morning of 24th June 2016, this is an event which we shall all look back up...