Multiple issues, multiple solutions

Multiple issues, multiple solutions
David Sinclair, International Longevity Centre – UK
@sinclairda @ilcuk
The International Longevity Centre-UK is an independent, non-partisan think-tank
dedicated to addressing issues of longevity, ageing and population change.

Summary
 Dr Dylan Kneale
 Using data from English
Longitudinal Study of Ageing
 What is Social Exclusion and why
are older people at risk
 How has exclusion changed 2002-
2008
 Who is most likely to be excluded
 Trends and key findings
 Recommendations


What is social exclusion?

• Broadest sense  Recognition of
material/non-material link

• No, Arguably apolitical with a rich academic
history
• UN, Europe…UK?


Social Exclusion
Decent Housing and
Public Transport

Civic Activities and
Financial Products
Access to information

Social Local
Relationships Amenities

Cultural Activities Consumer goods


Why might older people be at risk from
exclusion?/multiple exclusion
 characteristics that are more likely to occur
in later life, such as disability, low income
and widowhood
 cumulative disadvantage, where cohorts
become more unequal over time
 community characteristics which make older
http://www.flickr.com/phot
people more vulnerable e.g. population os/driever/5525684658/si
zes/m/in/photostream/
turnover, economic decline and crime
 experience of age-based discrimination.

Exclusion from Social Relationships


Exclusion from Cultural Activities


Exclusion from Civic Activities/Access to
Information


Exclusion from Local Amenities


Exclusion from Decent Housing and
Public Transport


Exclusion from common consumer
goods


Exclusion from financial products


Access to banking
 Almost ten per cent of older people do
not have a current account
 Among older people surveyed in 2002
and 2008, fifteen per cent of older
people did not report having a current
account at both points.
 Six per cent of older people who
reported a current account in 2002 no
longer did so in 2008.

Exclusion up - oldest and ethnic minorities

 Between 2002 and 2008, 9.3 per cent of
people aged 80 plus became excluded
from financial products compared to only http://www.flickr.com/
photos/pondspider/41
2.1 per cent of those aged 50-59. 70990903/sizes/m/in/
photostream/

 In 2008, the odds of an older person from
an ethnic minority being excluded from
financial products were 3 times higher
than the odds of a white older person.


So how has exclusion changed?


And what about multiple exclusion


Exclusion isn’t inevitable by age


What about those not excluded?


Who is most likely to be excluded?

 Older men were significantly more
likely to be excluded from social
relationships. Older women were
more likely to be excluded from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/d
cultural activities. riever/5525684658/sizes/m/in/
photostream/

 Being non-white was associated with
a higher risk of experiencing some
form of exclusion compared to being
white (59.8% compared to 47.3%).

Who is most likely to be excluded?

 Wealthy older people are much
less likely to be socially excluded
than their poorer counterparts
 Becoming a care giver between
2002 and 2008 was associated
with a two fold increase in the
odds of becoming excluded from
two or more domains of social http://www.flickr.com/photos/
sbeebe/5154169795/sizes/m/
in/photostream/


Other trends and key findings

 Living together is good for
us
 The squeezed middle age
 The oldest old remain the
most excluded
 Growing exclusion from http://www.flickr.com/photos/thousandshipz/4679235/siz

housing/transport/ es/m/in/photostream/

amenities


Living together is good for us

 Those who moved from living alone to living
as part of a couple (with no children) exhibited
a 68% fall in the odds of becoming multiply
excluded between 2002 and 2008 compared http://www.flickr.co

to those who stayed living alone; m/photos/anabadili/
2963913137/sizes/

 Those who moved from being resident in a
m/in/photostream/

couple household to living alone were over
three times more likely to become multiply
excluded.

The squeezed middle age
People in their fifties increasingly
excluded from society
 The number of people aged 50 plus
being socially excluded from decent
housing, public transport and local
amenities has risen sharply
 Over 1 in 6 people in their fifties were
socially excluded in two of more
areas– up from 13 per cent in 2002.

On the other hand – the oldest old
remain the most excluded
 Almost 38% of those aged 85 or older
faced some kind of social exclusion, an
encouraging decline of 10% from 2002
 As people age, they are more likely to http://www.flickr.com/photos
/pinkchocolate/3039589789/
become more socially excluded than less sizes/m/in/photostream/

 Almost two-fifths (38%) of those aged 85
and older were excluded from two or
more domains of exclusion in 2008


Growth in exclusion from
housing/transport/amenities
Rates of exclusion from decent
housing and public transport and
exclusion from local amenities
rose sharply between 2002 and
2008 among the population
aged 50 and above as a whole –
by over five per cent to
approximately sixteen per cent. http://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/5
832685007/sizes/z/in/photostream/


So what needs to happen?

 Allocate the task of measuring and
developing strategies to overcome
material and non-material
disadvantage to a specific team
within government.
 Shift the focus of government policy http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwjensen/2
288339230/sizes/m/in/photostream/
on ageing towards prevention.
 Develop a widowhood strategy.


So what needs to happen?

 Better develop outreach provision to reach the
hardest to reach before crises occur.
 Improve planning of neighbourhoods for people of all
ages to reduce levels of exclusion from local
amenities and decent housing and public transport.
 Provide additional support for carers and reduce
gender inequalities in social exclusion through the
expansion of existing intervention programmes.


Contact

David Sinclair
Assistant Director, Policy and Communications
International Longevity Centre – UK

davidsinclair@ilcuk.org.uk
Twitter.com/ilcuk
Twitter.com/sinclairda

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