Older people face a lonely future, thinktank warns

The number of lonely and isolated older people in Britain will grow by a third to 2.2 million by 2021 due to rising rates of divorce and childlessness, according to the centre-left thinktank Demos.

Social trends such as the growing number of people living alone and the fragmentation of the nuclear family have increased the risk of people becoming socially isolated in old age, the thinktank warns today.

Its report, Home Alone, also predicts that a digital divide between rich and poor will exacerbate social and health inequalities.

The report warns that the poor will be hit hardest by the breakdown of traditional family and community networks because they are less likely to have internet access, which could help them forge new friendships and access information and services to maintain their independence.

The thinktank also says the freedom that many young people enjoy from living alone becomes a threat to their independence if they become housebound in later life. It recommends a transformation of older people's services to ensure they help people to maintain the independence they enjoyed in their youth.

The report says that existing support services can exacerbate older people's isolation. For example, local authority meals on wheels services now tend to provide several frozen meals once a fortnight to housebound people rather than delivering hot meals daily. In other words, councils place a greater emphasis on cost effectiveness than social contact.

Mark Lever, chief executive of WRVS (formerly the Women's Royal Voluntary Service), said: "If the value of social contact for older and housebound people is not recognised in the form of funding for projects which enable regular contact, the future looks lonely and isolated for more people than ever before."

To strike the correct balance between support and independence, the thinktank recommends that older people become more closely involved in planning and providing support services.

It suggests creating community centres for housebound older people in the UK's 10 most disadvantaged wards which look after their physical and social needs. These would provide access to community services such as village halls, further education and allotments, as well as enabling people to pursue their hobbies and interests at home.

Other proposals include encouraging older people to become volunteer mentors who could, for example, provide advice and support to peers being discharged from hospital, and the promotion of volunteering among the over-65s.