Life begins at 65: workers can now stay on if they want

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age, discrimination, employment, retirement

Life begins at 65: workers can now stay on if they want

For many people, retirement is something to look forward to. But for others, it is not. When Knud Moller, a former government statistician, was forced to leave the job he loved in 2007 simply because he had turned 65, it was a horrible blow.

Mr Moller had hoped to keep working at least until the next national census, which was four years away, in 2011. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a choice. The law required that he retire, and the Stoke native was forced out of his job.

“I felt very unhappy. You lose your professional dignity and you, in a sense, become nobody,” Mr Moller, now 70, said. “I felt very bitter. I have applied for many jobs since then but often don’t even get an acknowledgement of my application.”

From today, however, the forced retirement law is no more. The Default Retirement Age (DRA) – which allowed employers to force people to retire when they reached 65 – has been abolished and older workers will be able to choose when they stop working.

Charities and senior citizens’ groups have campaigned against the DRA since it was introduced as an anomaly of new age-equality regulations in October 2006, arguing it discriminated against workers because of their age.

The charity director general of Age UK, Michelle Mitchell, welcomed the end of the law as a “major milestone in the fight against age discrimination”.

“We hope that now it is illegal to force someone out of their job simply because they are 65 or over, it will make employers look beyond their staff’s date of birth, objectively assess their skills and contributions and trigger a more positive and realistic attitude to older people,” she said. She warned that people over 50 find it harder than any other group to get a job.

But there are 955,000 people over 65 currently in work, or nearly one in 10 of that age group. This figure has risen steadily in recent years. Aside from the financial incentive, many of those who have continued working do so because they enjoy the activity. Gary Wakefield, 68, from Battersea, London, has worked at B &Q since his former employers made him partially redundant at 62, arguing that he was too old to continue as a forklift driver.

“I have always been a busy person. I cannot see myself sitting in front of the TV. I have been married for 48 years but I think that if you see your wife 24/7 it doesn’t always work, so it’s nice that I can be away for four hours every day.”

Case study: ‘I like working. My life is much more fulfilling’

Jean Rumbold, 70, from Southampton, was forced to retire as a GP surgery receptionist aged 65 and also had to give up the Brownie pack she had run for the past 32 years. Today, she works as a medical records officer at a local hospital in the mornings and as a swimming teacher in the afternoons.

“I felt cheated because I was doing a job I absolutely loved and I could have carried on. But there was no way I was going to give up work. I just like working. I feel as though my life is more fulfilling because I work. I enjoy my leisure time when I’ve got it but I like to keep busy.

“I also like the extra money. I get a state pension and the money from my two jobs has enabled me to buy a new car, go to the theatre and know I do not have any money problems.

“My husband is disabled – he’s got severe osteoarthritis. I work to 12.30pm at the hospital then come home and see to him. I need that job to keep me sane. Watching TV all day would drive me round the twist. I just love teaching swimming – there is a real sense of achievement”.

Cambodia’s war crimes tribunal releases former Khmer Rouge leader

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age, Alzheimer's, Cambodia, Genocide, healthcare, justice, Khmer Rouge, massacre, Torture, Tribunal, War Crimes

Cambodia’s war crimes tribunal releases former Khmer Rouge leader

Cambodia’s war crimes tribunal set free a former leader of the Khmer Rouge on Sunday, upholding a decision that has outraged survivors seeking an explanation of the mass killings committed more than 30 years ago.

Ieng Thirith, 80, who has been declared mentally unfit for trial, was driven out of the UN-backed tribunal’s compound by family members. She made no comment to reporters.

The Sorbonne-educated Shakespeare scholar served as social affairs minister during the Khmer Rouge’s rule from 1975-79, during which an estimated 1.7 million people died of execution, medical neglect, overwork and starvation.

The tribunal initially announced its decision to free Ieng Thirith on Thursday, saying medical experts had determined there was no prospect for her to be tried due to a degenerative mental illness that was probably Alzheimer’s disease.

Prosecutors then delayed her release by filing an appeal demanding that conditions be set to restrict her freedom.

On Sunday, the tribunal’s supreme court said it had accepted the appeal, which is expected to be heard later this month. In the meantime, it set three provisional conditions on her movement.

The tribunal said Ieng Thirith must inform the court of her address, must turn in her passport and cannot leave the country, and must report to the court whenever it summons her.

Ieng Thirith was the Khmer Rouge’s highest-ranking woman and also a sister-in-law of the group’s top leader, Pol Pot, who died in 1998.

She is accused of involvement in the “planning, direction, co-ordination and ordering of widespread purges,” and was charged with crimes against humanity, genocide, homicide and torture.

Three other senior Khmer Rouge leaders are on trial, including her husband, 86-year-old Ieng Sary, the regime’s former foreign minister; 85-year-old Nuon Chea, its chief ideologist and second-in-command; and 80-year-old Khieu Samphan, a former head of state.

The tribunal said earlier that Ieng Thirith’s release did not mean the charges against her were being withdrawn and was not a finding of guilt or innocence. It plans to consult annually with experts to see whether future medical advances could render her fit for trial, although that is considered unlikely given her age and frailty.

Survivors of the Khmer Rouge called Ieng Thirith’s release shocking and unjust. They said they had waited decades for justice and found it hard to feel compassion for her suffering.

“It is difficult for victims and indeed, all Cambodians, to accept the especially vigorous enforcement of Ieng Thirith’s rights taking place at the [tribunal],” said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, a group that researches Khmer Rouge atrocities.

In a statement on Sunday,, he noted the irony of Ieng Thirith receiving “world class health care.” As social affairs minister she was “personally and directly involved in denying Cambodians even the most basic health care during the regime’s years in power,” he said.

The tribunal began in 2006 – nearly three decades after the fall of the Khmer Rouge – following years of wrangling between Cambodia and the UN. The lengthy delays have been costly and raised fears that the former leaders could die before their verdicts come.

Elderly patients win right to sue if medical treatment is denied because of age

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abuse, age, discrimination, elderly, stroke

Elderly patients win right to sue if medical treatment is denied because of age

Elderly patients are to receive legal protection against being denied medical treatment simply because of their advanced years, ministers will announce today.

A ban against age discrimination in public services, such as health and social care, is to come into force in October. It will outlaw doctors, care home staff and hospital managers from deciding on levels of care on any grounds other than medical need.

Patients or relatives who believe they have been discriminated against because of their age or are being regarded as a lower priority than younger people with the same condition will able to sue health managers.

Nurses and carers will also face a legal obligation to treat older people with respect and dignity.

The moves follow years of reports of treatment being rationed by age – for instance with younger patients placed nearer the front of the queue for heart surgery – and accounts of elderly patients receiving sub-standard care.

Age discrimination in the workplace is already illegal and ministers have been deliberating for more than a year on whether the ban should be extended to the provision of services. As the timetable slipped, fears grew among campaigners for the elderly that the Government might be having second thoughts.

Ministers have dropped plans to outlaw companies and banks from charging older customers higher prices for products such as travel insurance, but are to implement the bulk of their initial proposals.

Doctors and hospital chiefs are formally advised only to allocate treatment on the basis of medical need and not age.

But studies suggest they are not always abiding by the instruction. Three years ago a think-tank concluded that older people had “differential access to services” – they were less likely than younger people to be referred to intensive care after a serious accident and waited longer in casualty departments. It also found they were not receiving equivalent treatment for conditions such as strokes and heart disease.

Paul Burstow, the Care Minister, will say today: “We know that older people are not always treated with the dignity and respect they deserve because of ageist attitudes – this will not be tolerated. Our population is ageing as more of us live longer. The challenge for the NHS is to look beyond a person’s date of birth and meet the needs of older people as individuals.”

Michelle Mitchell, of Age UK, said: “Discrimination based on your date of birth is as indefensible in 21st-century Britain as prejudice on the basis of race, gender, disability or sexual orientation.

“We hope the new law which will apply to the NHS, social care and other services will prevent older people being denied proper treatment because of their age. It sends a clear message to service providers that discrimination law will in future also protect older people.”

More:

Theresa May announces blanket ban on age discrimination of patients

Elderly struck by ‘epidemic’ of body image and eating disorders

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age, anxiety, Body Image, Depression, Eating Disorders, elderly, Self-esteem

Elderly struck by ‘epidemic’ of body image and eating disorders

A growing number of older British people – including those in their 70s and 80s – are suffering from low self-esteem and anxieties relating to body image.

Interviewed for the Observer Magazine this weekend, Professor Nichola Rumsey, co-director of the University of the West of England’s centre for appearance research, suggests that “as adults, 90% of British women feel body-image anxiety”.

She said: “It doesn’t wane – many women in their 80s are still anxious about the way their bodies look, which can even affect their treatment in hospital when their health choices are influenced by aesthetics.”

Popular opinion suggests that body image-related anxiety is a young person’s problem, with recent reports focusing on the age (five years old) at which we are now vulnerable to pressures to conform to an expected ideal. Constant media coverage of the debate on teenagers and their negative relationship with their bodies has served to reinforce the message that it is predominantly young people who suffer such anxieties.

However, Rumsey’s studies in Bristol counterbalance this with evidence that these anxieties do not dissipate as the years pass, but merely evolve into different types of concerns about appearance and how we are seen by others.

“We have conducted a study of about 1,200 people, which confirms that appearance-related anxieties persist well into later adulthood,” Rumsey said. “At an age where most healthcare professionals focus on controlling pain and body functionality, many patients feel the way they look is as much of a concern, but isn’t a legitimate topic of conversation.

“It can cause substantial distress to look in the mirror and see an ageing body, especially if they have very visible conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis or an obvious skin condition, for example, yet in the UK we can be very dismissive of what is often construed as vanity. GPs are not trained to deal with the psychological impact of these anxieties, which can have a significant influence on overall wellbeing.”

Even those who are relatively fit and healthy in later years struggled with the idea that they no longer conformed to a youthful ideal, said Rumsey, who recently co-wrote The Oxford Handbook of the Psychology of Appearance. “It is a myth that older people don’t care what they look like: the ‘normal’ signs of ageing can prove very depressing and many people find it hard to see themselves in a positive light when they see a wrinkled face and a sagging body looking back in the mirror. We are now at a point where there is a social stigma around the effects of the natural ageing process, and this can lead to very low self-esteem and the classic signs of body dysmorphic disorder.”

These observations are echoed by the increasing number of body image-related cases in older people being seen by Dr Alex Yellowlees, medical director and a consultant psychiatrist at the Glasgow Priory Clinic, who is witnessing “an epidemic of self-consciousness. We are suffering from a collective body dissatisfaction, which is a contagion in our society, and we must acknowledge that it affects all walks of society, young and old.

“It was once the case that we were happy to coast into retirement and relax in our old age, but now even in these later stages of life I am seeing people who are preoccupied with shape, weight and looks in a way that was once the domain of younger people who had yet to find their path or identity in life.”

Yellowlees reports an alarming rise in older patients with eating disorders, as all sectors of society strive to achieve what he calls “an unrealistic physical ideal”.

“Today everybody is acutely aware of how they look, and our appearance has become a currency we trade on,” he said. “That means we value old people less because they don’t fit the currency of ‘youth’. This in turn leads to a lack of self-esteem in older people, because they don’t feel valued by a culture that can’t get past superficial image. Appearance is a very fragile currency to trade in because a civilised culture interacts on more sophisticated values such as character, behaviour and language.”

In a culture where increasing value is placed on our appearance, Rumsey voices concerns that we must look beyond the superficial. “Older people are the wise ones we have always looked to for their experience and knowledge, and if they are preoccupied with appearance anxieties this becomes the norm for future generations.”

Over-60s put off seeing GP

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age, health problems

Over-60s put off seeing GP

People in their 60s are ignoring signs of ill health because they fear being dismissed as hypochondriacs or believe medical problems are a by-product of ageing.

Department of Health figures show almost a third (31 per cent) of people in their 60s put off visiting their GP because they think problems will simply go away.

An average of nearly two-thirds (62 per cent) ignore health concerns as they believe these are inevitable and not worth reporting, with the figure higher (71 per cent) for men.

Professor Ken Fox, an expert in older people’s health at Bristol University, said: “We’re not saying your body won’t change as you get older, it will, but it is important to get any unusual twinges checked out by a GP.”

However, the study found one in 10 would prefer not to know if they have a serious health problem.

Child asylum seekers ‘still being imprisoned’ by immigration service

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age, Child asylum seekers, Children, deportation, detainees, detention, trauma

Child asylum seekers ‘still being imprisoned’ by immigration service

A report by the Refugee Council to be published this week accuses the immigration service of continuing to detain child asylum seekers by wrongly classifying them as adults.

The report, Not a Minor Offence, has been welcomed by other groups working with refugees and asylum seekers who are growing increasingly concerned by the numbers of age dispute cases. Last year one child spent almost three months locked up before it was finally accepted that he was not an adult.

Evidence that children were being psychologically damaged by their experiences in the asylum system led the government to announce an end to the controversial practice of keeping under-18s in detention centres two years ago this weekend. Yet the practice is continuing and no one knows how many children have been illegally deported as adults.

Guessing someone’s age is controversial, but the Refugee Council believes officials are not erring on the side of caution. In many cases agencies find out about a child whose age is disputed only when another detainee inside a centre reports their concerns about an unaccompanied child being locked up.

Faisal was only 15 when he arrived in the UK. Judged to be an adult, he spent several days in police cells and was left to sleep rough on the streets before finally spending a month in a detention centre.

Talking about his experience still causes him acute distress. “I was 15. I didn’t have any documents but I know my age. I didn’t understand why it was so important.

“The immigration officer was banging his fist on the table saying ‘No, this is not your age’. By the end I was so tired and upset that I said OK, I will be whatever you want me to be. When I was first in the police cell I was crying because I couldn’t believe it. They came and banged on the door and shouted at me. One policeman drew his finger across his throat. They would all say ‘You’re going back, we’ll be sending you back’ and point at me and laugh. At the detention centre they locked me in a room by myself. I didn’t know anyone. I was very scared I was to be sent back to Afghanistan. I would rather die.”

The number of unaccompanied child asylum seekers arriving in the UK is dropping – from 3,645 in 2007 to 1,277 in 2011 – but no one knows why.

Judith Dennis, advocacy officer at the Refugee Council and author of the report, admitted the detention of children on the grounds that their age was in question had not changed, but said that establishing someone’s age was not easy. “It’s a difficult task but we should be erring on the side of caution. The official guidelines for unaccompanied children state they should not be detained unless ‘their physical appearance and/or demeanour very strongly indicates that they are significantly over 18’.

“That is clearly not what’s happening. All children should be referred to a social worker so that a proper assessment can be made. It’s not something you can decide in a few minutes, and I think it’s quite worrying this is what seems to be happening in a lot of cases.

“Given that it’s well established the harm the experience of being locked up can and has caused children, and that the government has accepted it’s unacceptable to lock up children, why are we not taking this more seriously?”

Hashi Syedain, of the independent monitoring board at Harmondsworth immigration removal centre, said the problem was serious. “It bears repeating again and again – in 2012 the UK is locking up children in Harmondsworth in what is effectively an adult male prison. They can remain there for weeks on end because the system doesn’t care enough to stop it happening.

“It is true that some young people who are over 18 claim to be younger in the hope of being allowed to stay in the UK, but this does not excuse the UK Border Agency’s failure to prevent children from ending up in detention.

“Another year passes in which nothing changes and children continue to find themselves in detention. It is not good enough.”

For Faisal, the intervention of Refugee Council workers meant he is at college and living in semi-independent hostel accommodation, but the trauma of his teenage years is far from over. When he turns 18 he may still be sent back to Afghanistan. “I try to study, but it’s hard to think of the future,” he said. “I feel very hopeless. I’m scared they will come for me and put me back in detention or deport me. I cannot go back to Afghanistan. If I had not left I would have been dead. If I go back, I will die.”

Why can’t we stay married?

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age, Children, Divorce, Marriage, Postnatal Depression

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/why-cant-we-stay-married-7657610.html

It could be described as a depressing portrait of a modern relationship: a career-driven couple meet later in life, have a whirlwind romance and settle down quickly to have children. Then things start to go wrong.

This is the picture painted by research carried out by the parenting website Netmums, which found that modern relationships are most likely to break down after just three years due to the stresses of late parenthood.

Relationship specialists immediately pointed to a growing trend for “fast forward” partnerships as couples leave it later in life to get together – but spend less time getting to know each other before moving in together and having children. One in 20 couples polled admitted they were expecting a baby within three months of getting together and 15 per cent within a year.

Consequently, the study of 1,500 people found that couples are now four and a half times more likely to split up after three years – earlier than the “seven year itch” traditionally cited as the danger point in a relationship. More than 20 per cent of couples who split saw their relationship fall apart between two and four years, while only 3 per cent broke up seven years in.

The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show that women now delay having children until they are nearly 30. The average age of women giving birth in England and Wales is now a year older than it was a decade ago (29.5 in 2010 compared with 28.5 in 2000).

The figures also suggest an increase in the number of parents who are living together, as the number of those who are married or in civil partnerships continues to fall. The proportion of births to couples who are married or in civil partnerships was 53 per cent in 2010, compared with 61 per cent in 2000, and 88 per cent in 1980.

But births registered by parents who appeared to be cohabiting – by jointly registering the baby and giving the same address – has risen, reaching 31 per cent of all births in 2010, compared with 25 per cent in 2000.

Penny Mansfield, director of One Plus One, the relationships charity, said: “This poll supports what we know of the changing social patterns that we see all around us. People are not marrying in the numbers that they did but they are forming partnerships and having children.

“People may have a series of relationships and then get to a certain age and then think: ‘Oh we should have children’ without necessarily having made more of a commitment. When you get this more informal approach to relationships – particularly when you have children – relationships are much more unstable.

“People also now have much higher expectations of relationships. So when people hit difficulties, often when they become parents, they think: “Things aren’t what they were’.”

Two out of five parents responding to the poll reported that they were so short of time and money that they could only go out as a couple “two or three” times a year. Fifteen per cent said they “never” went out as a couple anymore, while 14 per cent only had a single night a year together. Only one in 100 parents now spends quality time together a few nights a week.

Leila Collins, a counselling psychologist and lecturer at Middesex University, said: “There’s a great deal of pressure on women to educate themselves and prepare themselves for careers. Consequently the age at which they are prepared to settle down is a bit older and they may feel the clock is ticking. Even though they are a bit older and more experienced, when it comes to choosing a partner to start a family with, they may make mistakes.

“If you are going to have children with someone you need to be absolutely sure, no matter how much the clock is ticking. It is absolutely ludicrous and childish for people to think that they can have a child with someone and move on. You cannot take these risks with other people’s lives on a whim.”

The study also found that two thirds of couples believe it is harder to maintain a relationship nowadays compare to a generation ago. Almost two in five couples said it was more difficult to maintain a relationship because women were forced to work and had less time for their partners, while 22 per cent thought couples were less committed and too quick to split. One in 10 believe couples take having children “too lightly”.

Netmums founder Siobhan Freegard said: “Relationships are tough at the best of times, but add in young children, lack of time, work and money worries and it’s little surprise couples are splitting up earlier than ever before. There is unprecedented pressure on women to be the perfect wife, mother and career woman while men are feeling more and more unsure of their role.”

Having children was shown to be the biggest problem area. Almost half (42 per cent) of people who took part in the research claimed having children made them less close – with only a third saying they became closer after kids.

Four in five people polled said their relationship suffered when they were exhausted after the birth of a new baby or looking after young children. Almost half (46 per cent) went off sex, while two in five felt less attractive after putting on weight.

More than half blamed money worries and debts for problems in their relationship, while a third suffered postnatal depression. One in 14 admitted to starting an affair, while 9 per cent said their partner wanted to become more sexually adventurous when they didn’t.