Britain is sleepwalking into a pension crisis. One in five of us isn’t saving anything into a personal pension. Are you? Around 80% have no idea how much they’ll actually need to fund their retirement. Britain’s Great Pension Crisis with Michael Buerk, Channel 5 2019
A series of financial scandals have seen pensioners lose a lifetime of savings in retirement. ibid.
Over 10% of people over the age of 65 are still working. ibid.
Savers could be losing around £2 billion in pension scandals. ibid.
There’s a pension time-bomb set to explode in Britain over the next decade. With 20% of British workers not saving anything for their pension, the number of people living out their retirement in poverty is set to soar. Already, 90% of people on low incomes are relying exclusively on the government to fund their retirement. With over 1.5 million pensioners forced to keep working beyond retirement age, will you have to work till you drop. Britain’s Great Pension Crisis with Michael Buerk II
Just the idea that I would ever lose this man is too much to bear. He’s my dad. He’s such an open accepting person. That’s who you want for a father. And that’s who I have. Who I’ve always had my entire life. But now it’s upon us – the beginning of his disappearance, and we’re not accepting it. He’s a psychiatrist, I’m a camera person. I suggested we make a movie about him dying – he said yes. Dick Johnson is Dead, Kirsten Johnson director, Netflix 2020
In South Korea they believe that when you turn 60, you’ve become a baby again and the rest of your life should be totally about joy and happiness, and people should leave you alone, and I just think that that’s the height of intelligence. Alice Walker
Over 3.7 million over-45s go raving once a week in the UK. And there has been a 518% increase in over-60s being treated for cocaine-related issues since ten years ago. High Society: The Geriatric Ravers Still Smashing Drugs: Gravers, Youtube 22.25, Vice TV 2022
What effect does this lifestyle have on an ageing body? ibid.
2.1 million UK pensioners are living in poverty. Dispatches: Britain’s Forgotten Pensioners, Channel 4 2023
‘You either eat or put your heating on.’ ibid.
3 in 5 over-65s says they have had their heating on for less time than usual … 15% of over-65s say they have turned off their heating completely: this equates to more than 1.8 million older people. ibid. captions
45 people died every day last winter in England and Wales as a result of living in cold homes. National Emergency Action fears this winter the number will be higher. ibid.
If you had an eye, you’d go off me. Yeah, and run off with a young fellow. Play for Today: A Follower for Emily, him to her in old folks’ home, BBC 1974
Harry: Lovers’ tiff, eh?
Emily: We’re old enough to know better. ibid.
Funny being lonely with so many people around. ibid. Emily
Wife in bed: What are you thinking?
Husband: The cellar will need clearing out. Play for Today: Sunset Across the Bay by Alan Bennett, BBC 1975
I’m not sorry to be retiring. Whittaker’s? Well I shall miss it a bit but not a right lot … The best time was when we was on war work … ibid. husband leaves factory
We’ve lived round here all our lives. Courting in the cemetery! ibid. wife
It’s like leaving a bloody battlefield. ibid. husband
That’s the trouble with flats: you never know who’s listening. ibid. wife
Anyhow, you can’t be branching out into yoghurt at our age. ibid.
Arthur: It’s not me who insinuated.
Granddad: … It was the dog. Play for Today: Dog Ends by Richard Harris, BBC 1984
I knew I made a mistake with coming here. ibid. Granddad
You dirty filthy sod! I wish you were dead. I wish you were bloody dead. ibid. Arthur
I shouted at him last night. Said some terrible things. ibid. Arthur
Old age is invariably fatal one way or another. ibid.
I don’t want to be buried. I’m not going under the ground. ibid. Granddad
In case you’re wondering, there won’t be any question of a post-mortem. ibid. vet
I expect you feel depressed. I’ll give you some tranquillizers. Three of these four times a day; if it gets really bad, two of the little while ones, six of the black … ibid. doctor to Arthur
They can’t take him … The graveyard and crematorium attendants have down tools and demanded a 46% pay rise. ibid.
It’s Thursday. The binmen come. ibid. Henry
Ah! Box … thrree … spool … five … Spool! Spooool! … Mother at rest at last … Hm … The black ball … Black ball? … The dark nurse … Farewell to … love. Samuel Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape, Krapp; viz Patrick Magee TV
Have just eaten I regret to say three bananas and only with difficulty restrained a fourth. Fatal things for a man with my condition. ibid.
Now the day is over,
Night is drawing nigh-igh
Shadows – ibid. Krapp sings backstage
Spiritually a year of profound gloom and indulgence until that memorable night in March at the end of the jetty, in the howling wind, never to be forgotten when suddenly I saw the whole thing. The vision, at last. ibid.
I said again I thought it was hopeless and no good going on, and she agreed … ibid.
Nothing to say, not a squeak. ibid.
Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn’t want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn’t want them back. ibid.