MPs criticise ‘wealth-hoarding’ boomers stereotype as ageist
MPs are difficult stereotypes round older folks stockpiling wealth as youthful generations battle.
A report from the Commons’ ladies and equalities committee is looking for motion to sort out age discrimination, which MPs describe as widespread within the UK.
They criticise depictions of child boomers – these born between 1946 and 1964 and now of their 60s and 70s – as both frail or having fun with a lifetime of luxurious on the expense of their youngsters and grandchildren.
The report additionally hits out at what the authors say was a failure by earlier governments to handle digital exclusion of older folks as companies, notably round banking and well being, more and more transfer on-line.
The UK’s inhabitants continues to become older general, with 11 million folks in England and Wales now aged over 65, and greater than half 1,000,000 folks aged over 90.
Nonetheless, the Commons report highlights proof that ageist stereotyping remains to be extremely prevalent throughout all media within the UK, together with “portrayals of older folks as frail, helpless or incompetent, or conversely as wealth-hoarding ‘boomers'”.
Analysis from the Centre for Ageing Higher discovered that the sort of generational stereotyping contributes to the “othering” of older folks, inflicting “divisive and “dangerous tensions in society”.
An instance may be the “OK Boomer” meme used to dismiss older folks’s opinions by suggesting they’re out of contact.
The Commons committee needs to see a crackdown on these types of stereotypes by watchdogs together with the Promoting Requirements Authority and the published media regulator Ofcom.
Some older persons are additionally nonetheless at excessive danger of “digital exclusion”, MPs consider, as a result of they don’t have the talents to entry on-line banking, council or GP companies – regardless of the federal government launching a digital inclusion technique 10 years in the past.
Newest figures from Ofcom say almost one-in-three folks (29%) aged over 75 do not need entry to the web at house, in comparison with roughly one-in-16 (6%) of all adults.
The Commons report concludes that present legal guidelines towards age discrimination are too weak and “failing older folks” as a result of they’re not often enforced, regardless of proof of the hurt such attitudes trigger.
Committee chair Sarah Owen, a Labour MP for Luton North, mentioned it was time for a overview of tips on how to shrink the UK’s “pervasively ageist tradition” and usher in enforcement with tooth.
“It’s a appreciable failure of presidency that the digital inclusion technique has not been up to date, nor progress tracked, for a decade,” she mentioned.
“Finally far more have to be performed to sort out ageist attitudes and discrimination throughout society, together with in entry to healthcare, native companies, banking and transport.”
Owen is looking for the UK authorities to observe the Welsh instance of creating a commissioner for older folks alongside neighborhood champions to ship a nationwide technique.
