Foreword

The prize for political hype does not (for a change) go to the government but to Conservative pension’s spokesman Philip Hammond. He said it was “obscene” that the government was paying out £57m in overpaid benefits when people die (0.075 per cent of the benefits budget). Probate practitioners will not express surprise. If pensions and other benefits are paid in advance, by direct credit to accounts, it should be expected. Even zealously informing the DWP on the day of a death (when conceivably relatives might have other things on their minds) will not prevent this supposed horror. Genuine overpayments coming to light after death (on account of the probate reassessment of properly means-testable capital) are more of an issue.

The death related overpayment blip just described is fundamentally nothing to do with DWP inefficiency at the time of death. It also pales into insignificance when contrasted to the £2.6bn being overpaid as the result of error and fraud. Now that really is a lot of lost elder care and NHS beds.

Further in this connection, Axa’s recent ‘Global Retirement Scope’ study suggests that in the US, people start saving for their pension at age 30, at around 32 in Europe, 36 in Japan and 38 in China. Here we are sufficiently afraid (sorry “wise”) to start at a mere 28. Perhaps we would not need to start so early if the odd couple of billion of taxpayers’ money was being saved up for us and not being tipped down the drain each year?

As highlighted in earlier editions, the debts of older people are increasing. Total non-mortgage debt rose by nine per cent last year. The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) had a 65-per-cent increase in its workload. Citizens Advice charity has also reported a big increase in debt-related problems generally. CCCS reports that men over 60 are particularly affected. Men over 60 apparently now owe around £37,000. It’s getting worse and won’t go away. I am concerned that any property/interest rates related debacle cannot be expected to just have a knock-on impact on younger people as happened in the late 1980s and early 1900s. In particular, I now look at certain (often largely empty) large-scale buy-to-let “investments” with increasing scepticism. Oddly enough, many older people are still snapping them up. Is this the next mis-selling scandal?

But the income of older people is apparently not just being taken up in debt repayments. The over 50s have the largest ‘carbon footprint’ of any group in the UK, so quite a bit of money is also just ‘going up in smoke’. The Stockholm Environment Institute at York University estimates that the most climate unfriendly 50-64 age group contributes on average some 13.52 tonnes per head each year. Too much driving, flying, eating out and generally enjoying life are essentially labelled as the culprit. Perhaps the idea expressed in the cult seventies film ‘Logan’s Run’ involving killing off the population at age 30 might be revived in amended fashion? That is with the termination of the right to drive, fly anywhere or clutter up restaurants beyond say age 50. I am comfortably under that age but admit that under such a regime I would leave the country (probably by pedal cycle) at 49 so as to secure my CO2-related choices.

The long-term existence of this journal and the need for elder-care-related advice looks depressingly secure in some ways. According to the University College London, 700,000 people in the UK – one in 88 – have dementia. This is expected to rise to over 1,700,000 people by 2051. One in 20 people over 65 are afflicted along with one in five of the over 80s. Over two thirds is caused by Alzheimer’s. The cost of care for the late onset variety is estimated at over £25,400 per year. Most is self and family funded and Professor Knapp, one of the report’s authors, made it clear that he felt that service levels were inadequate and far too geographically varied. Interestingly, he also pointed out that funding for related research is much lower than for heart disease, cancer and strokes. This makes no real social or economic sense.

The future of our reader’s particular advisory sector thus being secure, we should check out future trends. University College London and the National Academy of Sciences have found that especially old people, Neolithic ones actually, could not produce the enzyme lactase used to break down milk. This made them rather ill if they attempted to drink it. Fortunately 95 per cent of northern Europeans can now do this, presumably as a result of many frequent attempts despite the consequences. I expect that an edition in around 5,000 years will report: “Amazingly, even young adults back in 2007 could not swill down ten pints of pure methyl alcohol and triple fried chips on anything like a daily basis – what a relief we can now.”

David Coldrick
Consulting editor
david.coldrick@wrigleys.co.uk

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