INTRODUCTION
It’s a great pleasure to be here in Orpington today.
We are now just 2 weeks away from the first nationwide poll on the leadership of Tony Blair since the general election of 2001.
The Liberal Democrats have put scrapping the unfair Council Tax at the heart of our campaign.
And only the Liberal Democrats have a positive alternative.
Many people on low and modest incomes would see a tax cut under our plans, which are based on best practice in America and Europe.
And the people who would benefit most from our plans for a local income tax would be pensioners.
Rises in Council Tax have hit the poorest pensioners hard.
Under our plans, based on national averages,
a pensioner couple in a Band D house
earning £14,600
and currently paying £1,202 in Council Tax, would pay just £22.
This commitment,
along with our pension policies
and instituting free personal care for the elderly,
form the core of our approach to easing the poverty that many of our eldest citizens find themselves suffering.
But today I would like to talk to you about other aspects of growing old, that seem to be passing the other parties by.
THIRD AGE – THE POLITICS OF A NEW GENERATION
We have known for many years that the age structure of our population is changing.
By 2020,
around 40% of the population will be aged over 50, compared to around 32% now.
This will clearly have consequences for our public services, both in structure and in financing.
But it will also have huge implications for our economic, social and cultural life too.
Why? Because what it means to be old is changing too.
The politics of the coming decades
will be dominated by the 11 million baby boomers who are moving from the world of work
into the world of retirement.
This is a generation which reached adulthood in the sixties, and is by nature individualistic, demanding and assertive.
These are not people who will grow old quietly.
We must change our mindset.
We must see Britain’s seniors as a resource.
We have to find new ways of re-engaging people as they retire,
to make sure their skills and energy are not lost to society and to the economy.
The needs of active older people have not had the attention they deserve from Labour.
The Liberal Democrats, by contrast, are thinking ahead.
We have set up a campaign team specifically to develop policies designed to tap into the dynamism of older people.
This means combating age discrimination in the work place;
Tapping into the vast reservoir of neglected experience in our retired population;
A new focus for the NHS so that it adapts to being, not only an emergency service, but a prevention service too.
And in particular how we manage the process of retirement itself.
It is a gross indignity to subscribe to the notion that a person’s contribution to society, and indeed the economy, stops when you reach 65.
We should see retirement much more as a process, rather than a single irreversible event.
Many people do not wish to give up work completely when they reach retirement age.
And many businesses and organisations place enormous value on the experience of their workforce – and want to keep them as long as possible.
So it’s crazy that current Inland Revenue rules stop people working for a company that is paying them a pension.
We need to change the rules so that people can carry on working part-time and still receive a pension from their company.
This will allow people gradually to wind down their work with the comfort of some of the pension they have earned.
As this new generation moves from a life in work to a life at home,
many thousands will be looking for ways to immerse themselves into a new life in their community.
Our active, positive, assured older people are keen to use their experience for the benefit of our society.
They have the time, the energy and the motivation to make a difference in their community.
We intend to make sure they can.
We intend to remove the barriers that currently exist for those looking to volunteer in local schools, churches and community projects - in local post offices and police stations.
Our army of older volunteers should be rewarded for their altruism –through pension credits and travel passes.
New systems, like the membership organisations called time banks which have been operating in the United States for years, are just taking off in the UK, and should be encouraged.
People can barter their skills and time
– one helps with housework where another uses their plumbing or mechanical skills - helping people in the community who are also prepared to give their time.
The Liberal Democrats will also be bringing forward proposals on the way in which support and advice is provided to older people.
There are a bewildering array of bodies that offer services for older people
– not only the central Government departments, Work and Pensions and Health,
but also advice services such as NHS Direct, Care Direct, and a range of education services.
These need to be brought together into a single ‘One Stop Shop’
so that people know where to turn for advice, rather than having to fight their way through a bureaucratic maze.
By regrouping resources,
people can seek advice on everything from pensions to health entitlements to volunteering opportunities,
all under one roof.
CONCLUSION
Such forward looking polices for the 21st Century,
for the new third age of life,
should form part of an overhaul of the way we think about ageing,
and meet the growing aspirations of active older people in Britain.
The Liberal Democrat instinct has always been to more local, enabling government.
Not towards the nanny state, with its overweening centralised bureaucracy.
And policies for enablement are exactly what we need for this new third age.
ENDS
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