Emerging from a long weekend of partying, to mark the State's sudden burst of generosity towards me (free bus pass, cheap entry to theatres, museums etc, free prescriptions), I'm bound to wonder whether this is a wise use of your and my taxes. My good chum David - who, aged 60, has a well-paid fulltime professional job - told me the other day that he'd reckoned in that week alone he'd had £60 ($120 approx) of benefits by virtue of his age. That's over £3000 in a full year, in an ageing population. It just isn't sustainable. But neither is the problem solved by saying "Well, just give it to people who aren't in fulltime work, then"; for someone aged over 60 who is employed on a minimum, or near-minimum, wage, then these benefits - and perhaps especially the travel and prescriptions - will be vital supports. So - does it come back to some form of means-testing? And can that be done in a way which doesn't scare people off or deter them from saving?
There's another, slightly insidious, aspect to all this. If one is fortunate enough to be reasonable healthy, as I am (or will be, when I've recovered from the partying), and particularly if one is still working which I am (or will be, until would-be clients read this blog), then turning 60 isn't likely to mean that you suddenly start thinking of yourself as 'old'. But then, along comes the State, pats you on the head, offers you a seat and a pile of benefits, simply on account of your age. So, then you do start to think "Well, if the State thinks I'm worthy of all this stuff, then maybe I am old", which isn't, to my way of thinking, a very sensible frame of mind into which to get.
And all this is happening when the Government is failing to meet its targets to abolish child poverty. Something wrong somewhere. I will ponder all this as I walk to the station to get my Senior Railcard. Now, where did I put the Alka Seltzer?
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