It was once said to me by a comrade in Baghdad, that you could only judge a democracy upon the way it treats its elderly and its children.

The fact that isolation is leading to the deterioration in elderly peoples health and the figures published by Age Concern stated that; “1.6 million pensioners see their children once a month and 603, 000 of that number see their children less than every six months”, only goes to remind me of the much publicised death of 79 year old Ivy Allen, only a few months ago.

Left penniless and isolated, Ivy Allen had been left to literally starve to death firstly because her front door had not been fitted with a letterbox and so her pension was returned to the benefits agency. As one paper described, “non of her 10 children, 30 grandkids, social services or pensions officials noticed she was dying at her home”.

Reading such scenes is reminiscent of a story my own grandmother used to tell me, when during the late 1970’s in Manchester, she discovered an elderly woman who was forced to eat cat food because no body had been present to collect the woman’s pension and do a decent food shop.

In October 2005, in an article titled “Pensioners Fight back”, it was estimated by the National Pensioners Convention, an organisation that represents a total of 1.5 million British pensioners, that a staggering “five million elderly people suffer from a long-term disability that bares restrictions upon their daily lives”. It was also estimated that a “1.5 million elderly people are malnourished or at serious risk of malnourishment.”

It is also known when these situations have arisen, where the isolation of elderly people has meant hospitalisation because of the fact that the person has been suffering from malnutrition and even dehydration or worse still hypothermia because of concerns over the expenses arising from the gas meter. In 2003-4, 22,000 people over the age of 65 died as a result of the cold.

In 2004 the Department of Work and Pensions published a document, which detailed the fact that in Britain some “2.2 million pensioners were living below the poverty line”, which is the same amount, as when Blair took power in 1997.

It is also estimated that pensioners save the State around; “£24 billion pounds a year by providing unpaid social and child care”. Other sections of British society, which are also saving the state money, include the “six million home care workers”, who receive a state allowance of only £45. 50 per week.

According to Carers UK, Britain saves a staggering “£660 million” a year, through unclaimed carers benefits. With less than one third of home carers being assessed by Social Services and “three in every five people becoming a carer at some point in time”, Carers UK published the fact that “One in five carers has to cut back on food” and “one in three have trouble paying utility bills.”

This is partly due to the fact that “Four out of ten (carers) find the level of charges for services cause added financial difficulties” and “one in three” carers having no savings at all. It is also claimed by Carers UK, that financial difficulties has also resulted in damages to the carers health, with carers being “twice as likely to develop mental health problems if they provide substantial care” and already “316,000 carers in the UK”, describe themselves as being “permanently sick or disabled”.

Speaking to a Manchester based home care worker, who looks after her disabled mother and elderly grandmother, stated that isolation “was not uncommon” in her area of work. “We are silent people who are stuck in our houses day in, day out. Why should the government care for people like us when we are equally as expendable as those who the bombs rain down upon.”

“Our only power for now is the vote and I for one, intend to use it!”

by Hussein Al-alak

About the Author:

Hussein Al-alak is 25 years old and is the chairman of the Iraq Solidarity Campaign UK. The Iraq Solidarity Campaign is supporting the National Carers Day 2005, which is taking place on December 2nd. For more information please check out the Carers UK website www.carersonline.org.uk