Читать книгу Not Dead Yet: A Manifesto for Old Age - Julia Neuberger - Страница 40

As I found when I was working on my last book, The Moral State We’re In, poverty may not be as much of an issue for older people as it was, though there are still some appalling examples. But these are often more to do with not being able to think properly about money, and manage the daily administration and bill paying we all have to do, than with actual lack of cash.

The shocking Christmas story of 2003 was about an elderly couple living in London, in the same house for 63 years, who had died respectively at 89 (the man, of emphysema and hypothermia) and 86 (his wife, of a heart attack).2 This was not the surprise. The problem was that their gas supply had been cut off because the bill had not been paid. Yet there was £1,400 in cash in their home and a further £19,000 in a building society. This was not a case of poverty. What was happening to them was that they were finding it harder to cope, a nightmare that overtakes many older people and is feared by even more. Though they may well not have Alzheimer’s disease or any other kind of dementia, at the very end of their lives they often find it hard to organize things and get their paperwork sorted, to catch up with the bills and the personal administration, and to keep their affairs in order.

In the case of this couple, British Gas had cut off their gas supply but not alerted the local social services, and excused themselves for this appalling oversight on the grounds of protecting their customers’ privacy, because of the Data Protection Act. The Data Protection Act’s Information Commissioner responded immediately that this was not correct, and ‘there seems to have been some incompetence on the part of the energy company.’ Yet the seriousness of the case lies in the fact that two perfectly innocent, old and frail people – just about coping with the vagaries of life in their own home – died because no one noticed that they were a bit confused.

Much of that confusion was about money. They may not have been poor, but managing money, or trusting someone else to do it for you when you can’t do it yourself – particularly if you don’t have children or other close relatives – is quite difficult. It is also a source of concern, and even fear, among many older people.