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COVER STORY
JUNE, 2020//
SENIORS
How society will change Greiner analyses post-pandemic life
‘‘
Tracey Johnstone
I fear ... it will be even harder for somebody over 55 to be maintained in employment.
MEMO to ScoMo: 70 is not “elderly”, bristles Kathryn Greiner (AO) as she stares down the barrel of the “new normal’’. The chair of the NSW Government’s Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing and the CRC Longevity Project recognises nothing is the same right now, and nor will it be in the future when Australia, and in fact the world, gets to the other side of COVID-19. “Social change is a pendulum that swings out,” she says. “This time it has swung way out, causing great disruption to our lives. “When that pendulum comes back and things come back to what we now call the ‘new normal’, it will never be in the same place that it was again. We are going to be further down the technological track. “We will have to manage our spending because things will cost a lot more because we won’t have the income we used to have.” Seniors will need to adapt to this new normal. Every aspect of their lives, and those of younger generations, are being impacted by this health crisis and its consequent financial crisis. While rigorous debates will ensue as the state and federal governments confront the challenges of retaining old social and economic policies, and implementing the introduction of new ones,
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Kathryn sees some key issues ahead that seniors need to get across. Inviting seniors to supermarkets at an allocated time, Kathryn says, was a positive move and one she hoped would continue well into the future. However, supermarkets have announced they have stopped the initiative as stock levels have returned to normal. “The concept that our older people deserve a bit more space and time to shop, I think, is a classic one,” Kathryn says. However, asking seniors to do this at 8am is a tough call for many of them, who struggle to be mobile at that early hour. She has also noticed a surge in the conversation around the lack of fit-for-purpose housing, particularly public housing, which has been highlighted to younger neighbours who are assisting seniors to cope with their everyday tasks. Work changes The call is for the doubling of the JobSeeker (formerly Newstart) allowance to stay even though the Government has said it will reduce it in late September. It is vital for those who
are unemployed and are not old enough to qualify for the age pension. “I think the community won’t allow the Government to go back,” Kathryn says. “We are going back to post-Great Depression thinking by government, which is why there has to be a platform to support people who cannot work and who cannot find jobs.” For several years now, there has been a big push to keep older workers in the workplace longer. That will change. Kathryn sees those over 50 struggling even more to find a job or keep an existing one. “I fear we are going to go back to an era where it will be even harder for somebody who is over 55 to be maintained in employment.” The challenge will come from younger people’s attitude to working. The favoured gig economy will slow down as young people seek to move from casual work towards permanent employment. Staying home It’s highly unlikely many Baby Boomers who have saved to travel overseas every two or more years will have the cash to spend on
SOBERING VISION: Kathryn Greiner (AO), chair of the NSW Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing, says life will never return to what it was before COVID-19.
their dream adventures. Many will find the value of their investments will have decreased significantly. So too their dividend income. “Where the travel industry has picked up the last four or five years with this ready market, that market has gone. And they will have reputational issues to address,” Kathryn says. Family stress “The numbers will go up,” Kathryn says about
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It is also expected that many Baby Boomers will be asked to provide financial assistance to their children, who will struggle to meet their financial commitments. Cash to card Cash, for the most part, has disappeared. We’re online in almost every way. Health, social connections, banking – we’re there now. That’s OK for those seniors who can afford an
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psychological elder abuse, which is happening behind closed doors. “We are hearing older people being confined to their bedrooms in a generational share house. “I heard of one independent-living resident who went to the shops and was then told he had to leave his accommodation. In the regional areas, there are tremendous problems with older people even being able to get to the shops.”
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