Age Discrimination & Age
Equality
Hounslow REC AGM – 5th Nov 2009
Claire Ball –
Development Manager,
Equalities and Human Rights
Age Concern and Help the Aged
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Outline of presentation
• Prevalence of age discrimination –
health & social care & financial services;
• Definitions
• Attitudes to ageing & older people
• Stereotyping and prejudice
• Tackling age discrimination..
• Promoting age equality.......
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Age discrimination
* Ageism is the most commonly experienced
form of discrimination (cf. gender, race,
religion, sexual orientation and disability);
• 28% respondents reported having
experienced ageism in the past year;
• Towards end of working life (55-64),
increased reports of age-based
discrimination – may reflect treatment
in the workplace.
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Age discrimination
• Exists and is more commonly experienced across all
age ranges than other forms of discrimination;
• Ageism often ‘benevolent prejudice’ –
older people
stereotyped as friendly, moral and admirable, but less
capable and less intelligent;
• Little perceived threat to way of life posed by older
people – reinforces view of older people as warm but
incompetent;
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Age discrimination
• ‘Benevolent’ prejudice likely to be hidden in
comparison to ‘hostile’ prejudice; perpetrator and the
victim can both be unaware of it;
• Behaviour intended to protect older people can
inadvertently become patronising and result in
disadvantages to them –
eg - restricting access to the workplace; failing to
offer choices in health & social care;
assuming that it is ‘natural’ for older people to have
lower expectations, reduced choice & control and less
account taken of their views;
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Age Discrimination – health &
social care
‘My mother saw her GP for years complaining
of back pain. He never examined her and
told her it was ‘old age’. When she moved to
Hampshire the new GP sent her for a scan
and found that she had a tumour the size of
a football in her back which could have killed
her!’
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Age Discrimination – health &
social care
Age Concern and Help the Aged’s ‘One Voice’ report
(2009) found that:
• 60% of people aged 65+ believe that age
discrimination exists in the everyday lives of older
people;
• 64% of older people think that health and social care
staff don’t always treat older people with dignity;
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Age Discrimination – health &
social care
Health & social care regulators undertook a review in 10
communities reporting in 2006 – they concluded:
• ‘Explicit age discrimination in access to services has
been addressed by most health and social care
services.... although the exception to this decline (in
explicit discrimination) is in mental health services;
• Despite these changes there is still evidence of
ageism across all services..... We also found that
awareness of diversity issues was at an early stage of
development’
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
National Review of Age Discrimination – Health
& Social Care
Announced in April 2009; reported October 2009 –
Recommendations on:
• Timetable for implementation of the ban on age
discrimination in H&SC services;
• Where it is objectively justifiable to retain age-based
differentiation in services;
• How to support the H&SC system to implement the
public sector equality duty in respect of all age groups;
• Key actions for H&SC bodies to take to make
demonstrable progress as quickly as possible.
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Financial exclusion and older
people
•
A diverse group – 1 in 5 of UK population is over SPA (12m
people);
•
BME groups under-represented among 60+ but some
catching up
•
Low income - 2 million live below the poverty line (18%)
•
6% of people aged 85+ have no bank account,
•
37% of people in Great Britain aged 65-74 and 48% of those
aged 75+ have a limiting longstanding illness
•
Only 36% of people aged 65+ have ever used the internet
•
Attitudes – people may be ‘pushed out’ by market as they
age
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Age discrimination – financial
services
Travel insurance
• 1 in 5 aged 75+ turned down or had restrictions
imposed - half felt this was due to an increased health
risk; the rest said ‘age-related’
• Those aged 80+ had trouble finding cover at all and,
when they did, quotations varied wildly and excesses
were extremely high
Motor insurance
• 1 in 10 mystery shoppers aged 75+ were turned down
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Age discrimination – financial
services
‘An older man who is a member of the Institute
of Advanced Motorists, and who flies
aeroplanes every week, tried to hire a car at
Edinburgh Airport. Because of his age (70),
he had to agree to pay the first £ 500.00 of
any claim – including theft’.....
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Age discrimination – financial
services
‘A woman called Age Concern to say that her
mother was making a purchase at a leading
Department store to the value of £ 150.
She was asked if she would like to apply for a
charge card to benefit from a 10% discount
on the purchase. She was then asked her
age. When she said she was 65, they said
that they were sorry, but they could not give
her the charge card because she was too
old’.
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Age discrimination in financial
services – why is this important
Travel insurance
– 13% of mystery shoppers 80+ put off travelling by
insurance difficulties
– ‘Packaged’ accounts may offer free insurance –
below an age limit
– Multiple barriers for older travellers to some
countries
Motor insurance
– Lack of access increases costs and isolation
– Problems with car hire and courtesy cars
– Problems with volunteering (can they drive the
mini-bus?)
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Age discrimination - definitions
Direct discrimination –
•
Less favourable treatment because of someone’s age:
•
Unlawful (in employment) on grounds of age to:
•
Decide not to employ someone
•
Dismiss them
•
Refuse to provide them with training
•
Deny promotion
•
Give adverse terms & conditions
•
Retire an employee before the employer’s usual retirement
age (if there is one) or retire an employee before the default
retirement age of 65 without an objective justification
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Age discrimination - definitions
Indirect discrimination –
means selection criteria, policies, benefits,
employment rules or any other practices which,
although applied to all employees, have the effect of
disadvantaging people of a particular age, unless the
practice can be justified.
Indirect discrimination is unlawful whether it is
intentional or not.
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Age discrimination - definitions
Lawful discrimination –
Limited circumstances where it is lawful to treat people
differently because of their age.
It is not unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of age if:
•
There is an objective justification for treating people
differently – eg. fixing a maximum age for recruitment or
promotion of employees
•
There is a genuine occupational requirement (GOR) that
a person must be of a certain age – for example, if you are
producing a play which has parts for older or younger
characters.
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Age discrimination - definitions
Harassment –
•
Includes behaviour which is offensive, frightening or in any
way distressing.
•
may be intentional bullying which is obvious or violent, but
can also be unintentional, subtle and insidious.
•
may involve nicknames, teasing, name calling or other
behaviour - not with malicious intent but which is upsetting.
•
may be about a person’s age or about the age of those with
whom s/he associates. It may not be targeted at an
individual(s) but consist of a general culture which, for
instance, tolerates the telling of ageist jokes.
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Attitudes to ageing and older
people
• People in mid-life age group (45-64) least
satisfied with their own age group;
• ‘Younger’ (16-44) and ‘older’ (65+) people
show most positive sense of belonging,
identity and happiness with their age group;
• Dissatisfaction of 45-64 age group could be
an effect of ‘birth cohort’ (‘baby-boomers’), or
a response to negative attitudes about
growing older & way of coping with/avoiding
ageism?
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Attitudes to ageing and older
people
Stereotypes and benevolent prejudice –
• Older people are stereotyped as ‘warm’ and ‘not
competent’
• Younger people are stereotyped as ‘cold’ and
‘competent’
• Specific traits assigned to older people more than
younger people are: moral, friendly, pitiable and
admirable;
• Older people are as prone to having these age
stereotypes as the rest of the population.
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Attitudes - stereotyping
• Groups in society tend to be stereotyped in
terms of two primary qualities – competence
& abilities; and warmth or affability;
• Lower status groups more likely to be
stereotyped as ‘warm’ but not ‘competent’;
• Higher status groups more likely to be
stereotyped as ‘competent’ but not
necessarily ‘warm’;
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Attitudes - stereotyping
competent
men
|
Jewish people
|
Christians
Cold _______________|_______________ Warm
|
women
welfare recipient
|
disabled people
(low status/’competing’)
|
(low status/’noncompeting’)
incompetent
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Prejudice - values
* Values are key to people’s reactions to others &
attitudes towards prejudice & discrimination • Equal opportunities in favour of older people were
about right;
• Equal access to health care for older people much
more favoured than equal access to education;
• Older people showed greater orientation to work ethic
than the rest of the population;
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Prejudice & intergroup threat
* Competition between groups, especially ethnic
groups, known to be key element in prejudice (eg.
seen as a threat to access to jobs);
• Other perceived threats include to cultural norms,
customs, traditions and way of life;
• No significant perceived threat to customs, traditions
etc. posed by older people; but there was evidence of
threat to standards of living, health & access to jobs
and education;
• However, 56% respondents also thought older people
had put more in to the economy than they were taking
out – contribution vs. perceived threat;
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Tackling age discrimination –
• Older people are as prone to age-based
prejudice against their own age group as rest
of society;
• Strongly suggests that initiatives to tackle
ageism need to involve older people as
active participants, rather than passive
‘victims’;
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Tackling age discrimination.....
• Positive contact between older people and other age
groups is key to tackling age-based prejudice and
discrimination;
• Reduced stereotyping of older people as incompetent
by those who have friends aged over 70;
• Policies that segregate older people – in healthcare,
social care or housing – need to be carefully
considered in light of their potential effects on ageism
in wider society;
• Equally, intergenerational initiatives should be
encouraged and evaluated from the point of view of
reducing ageism;
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Promoting age equality......
Equality Bill (2009) provisions to outlaw age
discrimination in goods, facilities and services (GFS);
• Differentiation is not automatically discrimination –
different treatment by age will be allowed, as long as it
is ‘objectively justifiable’ and a ‘proportionate means
of achieving a legitimate aim’ (eg. flu vaccinations)
• For age only, the ban on age discrimination does not
apply to the treatment of under-18s;
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Promoting age equality......
• Public authorities will have a duty to promote age
equality in all areas of their work, including good
relations between different age groups;
• Legal mechanism to drive the reform of public
services, from policy-making to service delivery;
• A positive duty will require PA s to build age equality
into their business planning;
• Implementation in all sectors – including Health &
Social Care – by 2012;
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Promoting age equality......
• Public Authorities will have to ‘age-proof’ all their
activities & functions, aiming to achieve equality and
fairness for people of all ages, taking into account the
future needs of an ageing population;
• UN Principles for Older Persons – can provide a
useful framework – Independence, Participation,
Care, Self-Fulfilment & Dignity;
• Linked to Human Rights principles – Fairness,
Respect, Equality, Dignity & Autonomy (FREDA)
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people
Thank you for listening.....
Contact details:
Claire Ball,
Development Manager, Equalities & Human Rights
Age Concern and Help the Aged
T: 020 8765 7718 (or: 01865 432 657)
E: claire.ball@ace.org.uk
Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form
Age UK, a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people