Latest news with #CaroleEastonOBE
The Independent
25-03-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Living in the poorest areas of England could cut five years off your life
Living in the poorest areas of England could cost you almost five years of your life, a report on ageing has revealed. Men living in the poorest areas of the country can expect to live 4.4 fewer years on average than those living in the wealthiest areas of England. While women live 3.7 years fewer on average. But when comparing the life expectancy of individual local authority areas, the gap grows even wider to a full decade for men and eight years for women. These stark differences in life expectancy were highlighted in the State of Ageing report 2025 by the charity Centre for Ageing Better. Regional inequalities in health are growing, with the bottom fifth of local authority areas in terms of wealth overwhelmingly in the north of England and predominately in urban areas. Meanwhile, the richest fifth are almost exclusively made up of local authorities from the Midlands, the East of England, London and the South East and are significantly more likely to be rural. The average life expectancy at birth for men in the local authority areas with the lowest incomes in England is 77 years compared to 81.4 years for men living in the wealthiest. For women, the average life expectancy at birth in areas with the lowest incomes is 81.2 years, compared with 84.9 years in the highest. At the local authority level, men living in the district of Hart in Hampshire (83.4 years) can expect to live a full decade longer than men in Blackpool (73.1 years) while women in Kensington and Chelsea (86.5 years) can expect to live almost eight years longer than women in Blackpool (78.9) for women. To tackle this 'deadly postcode lottery ', the Centre for Ageing Better is calling for the creation of an independent Commissioner for Older People and Aging to create a focus for government departments to reduce inequality later in life. The charity is also calling for a reversal of cuts that have reduced the public health grant by a quarter over the past eight years. 'Living in a part of the country where good quality jobs and opportunity is scarce, and where financial insecurity and poverty is rife, is robbing people of their health in later life and depriving them of years spent with loved ones. This is the true human cost of our very unequal society,' Dr Carole Easton OBE, chief executive at the Centre for Ageing Better, said. She added: 'Coordinated, urgent action is needed across government, society, and communities to put us back on the road to recovery. A commissioner for older people and ageing is urgently needed to lead those efforts. Everyone benefits when older people can live fulfilling, engaged, independent lives in age-friendly societies.' However, it's not just life expectancy that matters when it comes to measuring the nation's health and prosperity – the length of time that's lived in good health also matters. Healthy life expectancy at birth has undergone a striking decline in England as a whole and in all regions except for London, with the proportion of life spent living in good health at its lowest since 2013. The charity warned this will have economic implications because health expectancy determines how long we can stay in work, with repercussions for our financial security in later life and our requirements for health and care. For the period between 2021 to 2023, the average healthy life expectancy in England was 61.5 years for men and 61.9 years for women. So, on average, a man in England can expect to live 78 per cent of his life in good health while the proportion for a woman is 74.5 per cent. The report also highlighted that older people living in local authority areas with the highest proportion of residents on low incomes are almost three times as likely to be disabled than those living in the areas of the country with the lowest proportions. People aged 50 to 64 living in Blackpool are almost three times as likely to be disabled (32 per cent) as people living in Elmbridge in Surrey. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'Life chances and life expectancy should not be determined by your postcode. Through our Plan for Change, we are shifting focus from sickness to prevention, targeting the drivers of ill health and catching the biggest killers earlier.'
The Independent
25-03-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Mapped: The stark north-south divide in UK life expectancy – and where men and women are dying younger
Men across the country are, on average, living four fewer years than women – but there are stark disparities across the UK, new analysis shows. Research from the Centre for Ageing Better found from 2021-2023, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years for men and 83 years for women. The charity's 2025 State of Ageing report found men living in the bottom fifth of areas of the country in terms of wealth can expect to live 4.4 fewer years on average than those living in the wealthiest areas of England. The difference in life expectancy for women in the top fifth and bottom fifth of areas in terms of wealth has now reached an average of 3.7 years. There is a clear north-south divide in average life expectancy at birth across England, the report found. The lowest life expectancy at birth for men and women is in the North East (77.4 and 81.4 years respectively), according to the Centre for Ageing Better. The map below shows the life expectancy for men and women in every local authority across the country. The highest life expectancy is in the south east – 80.3 for men and 84.1 for women, the charity found. When drilling down to the level of local authorities, the area with the lowest life expectancy for both men and women is Blackpool (73.1 and 78.9 years respectively). Men living in Hart in Hampshire have the highest life expectancy (83.4 years), more than 10 years longer than men in Blackpool, analysis from the charity found. The highest life expectancy for women (86.5 years) is in Kensington and Chelsea in London. This is almost eight years longer than for women in Blackpool. The 2025 State of Ageing report also found the 10 local authorities with the highest life expectancies at birth for men and women are all in the south of England, and the 10 local authorities with the lowest life expectancies are in the north of England and the Midlands. However, areas in the north of England, such as North Yorkshire, Ribble Valley and Westmoreland and Furness have higher life expectancies than the national average for both men and women. There are also areas in the south of England, such as Folkstone and Hythe, Eastbourne and parts of London, that have lower life expectancies than the national average. Dr Carole Easton OBE, Chief Executive at the Centre for Ageing Better, said: 'The substantial regional inequalities highlighted in our new State of Ageing report are truly a matter of life and death. Living in a part of the country where good quality jobs and opportunity is scarce, and where financial insecurity and poverty is rife, is robbing people of their health in later life and depriving them of years spent with loved ones. This is the true human cost of our very unequal society. 'The really worrying trend is that inequality in life expectancy is increasing almost everywhere. The bombardment of shocks from austerity, Covid and the cost-of-living crisis have compounded longer-term health and inequality issues to ensure we truly are the sick man of Europe.' Dr Easton said urgent action was needed across government, society, and communities 'to put us back on the road to recovery.' 'A Commissioner for Older People and Ageing is urgently needed to lead those efforts. Everyone benefits when older people can live fulfilling, engaged, independent lives in age-friendly societies,' she said. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'Life chances and life expectancy should not be determined by your postcode. Through our Plan for Change we are shifting focus from sickness to prevention, targeting the drivers of ill health and catching the biggest killers earlier.'
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Calling baby boomers wealth hoarders is ‘discrimination', say MPs
Calling older people 'wealthy boomers' amounts to age discrimination, a parliamentary report has found. The Women and Equalities Committee criticised popular depictions of baby boomers, aged in their 60s and 70s, as wealth hoarders who enjoy luxuries at the expense of their children and grandchildren. MPs also found evidence of ageist portrayals of older people as frail, helpless or incompetent. Older people are at high risk of exclusion from key services including healthcare, local authority services, benefits and banking, the report found. Furthermore, the report criticises the Government's digital inclusion strategy which it said hasn't been updated for over a decade. The UK has 11 million people over the age of 65 and half a million over the age of 90, with these figures set to increase as the population as a whole gets older. Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee and Labour MP Sarah Owen said: 'The UK's growing and increasingly diverse ageing population presents significant cross-departmental challenges and opportunities, so the lack of a Government strategy on how to respond to these issues is concerning.' The term 'baby boomers' refers to people born between 1946 and 1964. Last year, charity the Center for Aging Better argued that calling older people 'sweet' or 'kind' fuels a 'damaging stereotype' about ageing. MPs have now asked advertising and media regulators to strengthen their rules against ageism. In response to the findings the committee called on the Government to fund the Equality and Human Rights Commission to review the effectiveness of protections against age discrimination. It also recommended stronger protections against age discrimination in the workplace. This view is supported by research from the Center for Aging Better which found one in four people think it does not make business sense to employ someone over 50 because they will be a slow worker who will 'not be able to adapt'. Last month, The Telegraph reported that civil servants have been ordered to stop using the term 'digital native' in job applications amid complaints of ageism. Dr Carole Easton OBE, chief executive at the Centre for Ageing Better, said: It is so dispiriting that these attitudes persist when older workers have such potential to tackle skills shortages, help businesses to thrive and grow our national economy. Sarah Owen added: 'Ultimately much more must be done to tackle ageist attitudes and discrimination across society, including in access to healthcare, local services, banking and transport.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
