It was my birthday a few weeks ago, which was a flimsy but gleefully taken excuse to turn a weekend’s socialising into an extended celebration, worthy of a royal wedding. However, the inevitable post-party blues saw me not only contemplating a new number in the age box, but also the future. I scared myself.
My step-grandmother is 92. She is physically sound but mentally no longer classed as competent and needs constant care. She lives in a care home in the West Midlands, which costs £2,000 per month. Based on the longevity of her family, she could live at least another ten years, which means the cost of her care could conservatively rise to over a quarter of a million pounds.
She is most certainly not alone. According to the 2011 census, the population of the UK is around 63,182,000 of which 16.6% are over 65. This means there are around 10.5 million pensioners in the UK. And, if they were all to go into care homes overnight – not taking into account the costs of regional differences, such as the more expensive South East – this would amount to a mind-boggling bill of almost 21 billion pounds a year.
Moreover, the population is increasing and living longer – but not necessarily healthier. Around 10 million Britons smoke; heart disease, cancer and its improved survival rates, an obesity rate of a third of all people and over five million diabetics cost the NHS well over £25 billion a year.
And there are other considerations: part- and full-time home care, specialised nurses and security guards, harnesses to lift the disabled and obese, adapted domestic and workplace fixtures, converted cars and support drivers, cleaning and meals-on-wheels services…The list goes on – and all of it must be met by the public and private purse.
There’s also the increasing scenario of pensioners caring for pensioners: children themselves of retirement age bearing the cost and sometime precarious physical responsibility of looking after 80- and 90-year-old relatives.
In a nutshell, our ageing population represents a financial and social time bomb.
I came to the conclusion that there is only one way to pay for all that extra care for me and my family – work: longer hours, extra jobs, or working beyond the age of 65. Oh, what fun. I also concluded that the only way I could do that is to stay fit, healthy and mentally active – an experienced, valuable and attractive employment asset, as they say.
So, being a realist and an optimist – and frankly seeing no other choices – I decided not to fight the idea, but to embrace it – and see if I could actually make it enjoyable. What I would call real quality of life.
And that is the purpose of the Reverse Time Machine blog – to explore ways that not only help us all stay younger and healthier for longer, but all the other associated benefits that go with it – and, who knows, maybe save us all a few million quid in the longer run.
And you can follow the quest on Twitter @The_RTM
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