Reasons Behind The Decrease of Elderly Care in the UK

Currently, it is believed that the problem of population aging is playing an increasingly important role in the UK. It leads to the issue of Labor shortage, health care of the elderly and Stress on the pension system, etc. Honestly, longer lives can be a wonderful benefit, but if we do not take effective measures it might become a huge disaster to society. In this case, taking care of the elderly well, is a issue that the government should solve immediately. In this essay, I will start to discuss the problems and solutions related to caring for old people in the UK.

First of all convincing arguments can be made that because of the population aging the society is under great pressure since more and more old people need to be taken care of. To start with, it is true, population aging is significant that many older people would retire, they are starting to use the social welfare system and the pension system. However, they are living longer than the people living in the past. The National Health Service is facing huge increases in demand and costs as older ages, and reforms are needed to cope.

As a result of this increasing demand, without fundamental changes in the way health and social care services people, demand will not be met and cost pressures will increase inexorably. The research shows that “due to an aging population with annual increases in costs varying from 0.48 to 1.12%” (Caley, M, & Sidhu, K, 2010, 117-122 ).

And those Numbers are increasing every year. It is huge pressure on the Social welfare system in the UK. At the same time, The Nuffield Trust recently estimated that the NHS in England would be £54 billion short by 2020/22 if NHS funding remained unchanged in real terms and if productivity did not improve, given current trends in hospital spending on chronic disease and health care. This leads to a decline in the quality of life of the elderly.

Secondly, the problem of care of the elderly is that the population aging fast which means an increased number of older people living longer. In other words, it leads to they have higher chance to getting the disease. The studies have shown that “predicted increases in demand for health and social care from 2010 to 2030, in England and Wales the people who are aged 65 and over with diabetes up by over 45%. People with arthritis, coronary heart disease, stroke each up by over 50%. People with dementia (moderate or severe cognitive impairment) up by over 80% to 1.96 million. people with moderate or severe need for social care up by 90%” (House of Lords Select Committee on Public Service and Demographic Change).

Moreover, the older people are a disadvantaged group, they worked many years and made contribution to society of the UK. However, many of them cannot obtain health and life care very well. The current health care system is inefficient in providing adequate care for the elderly. As a result, there is an urgent need to change the current system to provide better health care more effectively.

The solution for the first problem is that because of the NHS, the social welfare system and pension system under such economic pressures, Current pension policies should be changed. For example, the government should raise the retirement age and pension age for older people. Therefore, it is would be a quick solution for the financial problem, and the labor force shortage caused by an aging population. At the same time, The Government should publicly reject the 'lump of labor fallacy' that wrongly argues this will disadvantage the young (House of Lords Select Committee on Public Service and Demographic Change). It is the quickest and most effective way to alleviate the financial problem of the NHS, social welfare system and pension system. Also it is a good way to keep Social stability.

Another method for the second issue is that the government has to take more responsibilities such as help the elderly make their retirement plans. Based on a series of projections, professor Rees found that an aging population would increase the number of people with long-term illnesses by 39 percent between 2010 and 2050, but if the decline of the past decade repeated itself over the next four decades, the increase would return to 6 percent. Professor Rees also stressed that it was important to consider the specific disability suffered.

The increase in the number of people with dementia is expected to pose major challenges. By 2036, the number of people with dementia will increase by 83%. However, most of the elderly people cannot know about the data also they cannot have a good plan for their future retirement. Hence the governments Should help the older people to better understand healthy life expectancy, pension projections, the likelihood and cost of needing social care, and how best to use their assets so that individuals and families can analyze their situation and make informed choices. Because older people need to spend a lot of time learning to use inefficient health care systems, but older people are more likely to get the disease.

In summary, care of the elderly increased harder because of the population aging, in this essay we discussed the tow problems that the aging population has economic pressure to the society and the elderly people need more care from society and government. Given these factors, there are solutions one of them is raised the retirement age and pension age for the older people. Another solution is the government gives the plan for elderly people. In conclusion, population aging is the way which must be passed. Also, it is the problem we have to solve. If the problem is not resolved it might be the largest disaster. So the government should respond quickly. At the same time, the public should pay enough attention to it.