Purpose Prize winners 2010
A former homeless alcoholic and a housekeeper are among this year’s winners of The Purpose Prize, a $100,000 award for entrepreneurs over the age of 60. The five winners, announced today, were selected by a panel of judges chaired by Sherry Lansing, former CEO of Paramount Pictures and the first woman to head a Hollywood [...]
The spanners are coming
You’re made redundant or you retire in your 50s or 60s. You’re fit, smart, experienced, and still interested in working. Where on earth do you go to find a job? The Americans have coined the expression ‘the Wal-Mart years,’ in recognition of the many people aged from 55 to 75 who take low paid, menial [...]
Life: slide or roundabout?
Something enormous is happening. Two enormous things, in fact, and in time they may find a way to work together. That was the conclusion of this afternoon, which I spent in a very interesting discussion with people in cities all over the world, thanks (again) to Cisco. One of the enormous things is demographic shift; [...]
France vs America: who’s got it right about retirement?
Watching the street protests against raising the retirement age in France this week, I’ve felt oddly torn. All those students and workers look so glamorous in their intensity, so stylishly 1968-and-manning-the-barricades. As doomsayers in Britain increasingly predict wars between the generations, it’s hard to imagine young people here standing up for their elders in the [...]
Inventing a new phase of life
It was a huge treat to meet Marc Freedman this week when he was in London. At Agebomb’s event at NESTA, he talked about the paradox that longer lives – which are obviously a good thing – are also widely seen as a social disaster. In the US, as well as here, there are plenty [...]
Come to our ‘what is the point of retirement?’ event
Here is the invitation to Agebomb’s NESTA event on October 5th. Please do sign up!
Agebomb to hold an event with Nesta in early October
Excellent news: the splendid Marc Freedman will be visiting London from San Francisco for two days in early October and has agreed to be the keynote speaker at an Agebomb event on the new old age, to be held in conjunction with Nesta on the morning of Tuesday October 5. We will be looking at [...]
Immigration – the politicians’ dirty little secret
Wading through the new Office for Budget Responsibility’s analysis of the state of the British economy, it’s obvious that the ageing population will be a significant factor when it comes to restoring growth (or not). The pre-budget forecast highlights real dangers of a slowdown caused by fewer people working and higher demands on pensions and [...]
Grandmentors: the new idea from the Department for the Big Society
Older people are to be recruited to mentor troubled teenagers and help them get back into education, training or work under a new initiative launched today at the House of Lords. The idea is credited to Lord Freud, the former Financial Times journalist, banker and New Labour advisor, now Conservative peer and Minister for Welfare [...]
Pension? what pension?
By Geraldine Bedell on 16 June, 2010
Yesterday I went to see Steve Webb, the new pensions minister, speak at a debate sponsored by the International Longevity Centre (ILC). With some trepidation, because I find pensions terrifying. I know I don’t have enough of one, and I don’t understand them. The debate was quite consoling, because it was clear, firstly, that pensions [...]
Posted in Blog, Commentary, Money, News, Politics, Work | Tagged Baroness Patricia Hollis, Chris Curry, coalition document, default retirement age, equity release, inequality, Institute for Fiscal Studies, International Longevity Centre, Lawrence Churchill, long-term care, national insurance, NEST, pensions, Pensions Policy Institute, pensions tax relief, state pension, Steve Webb | 2 Responses