I’m listening

Ruth Marks, who was yesterday appointed the first Commissioner for Older People by the Welsh Assembly, has said she is “here to listen”. I’m sure there will be no shortage of pensioners out there itching to tell her exactly what they are unhappy about and what she should do to put it right!

But whether Marks, already dubbed the ‘pensioners’ czar’ by more than one newspaper, can make a difference to older people is another matter.

Wales has a higher proportion of older people than in other parts of the UK – more than one in five people in the principality are over 60 – so she is batting for a large proportion of society.

But many of the issues affecting older people are potentially expensive to the government, such as residential and domiciliary care funding and the level of the state pension. And this is where the problem lies. Governments often loathe giving out more money, especially at a time when the economy is looking wobbly and there are more headline-grabbing areas, such as education and healthcare, which tend to take precedence in these matters.

Also, Marks want to address the neglect and isolation of many older people. Not only will this take money, it will also take a change in attitude from certain people in society, which is again hard to achieve.

Marks may be saying all the things now that older people want to hear – talking of ensuring that the voice of older people is heard and that they are involved in every aspect of policy making and in the decisions that affect their lives – the real acid test will come when she starts work in April.

Hopefully she will be given the power to make a difference in policy and isn’t just a high-profile sop to appease the older people’s lobby.