Care Innovations Connect

This development is the first tangible output I have seen from the Intel-GE Care Innovations venture.

I am sure there have been others but they must have passed me by.

Excuse the management speak but this is what the organisation says about itself.

Staying social and maintaining friendships is essential to health and longevity. Optimizing the physical, cognitive and emotional well being of seniors is central to maintaining an independent, healthy lifestyle. Intel-GE Care Innovations™ is your technology partner to help community members stay connected at the touch of a finger. Discover Care Innovations™ Connect -- an easy-to-use digital experience that functions as a wellness communications device and social networking hub all-in-one.

Rather than explain what this system does it is easy for you view the videos.

I have to be honest, but this all looks a tad to ‘corporate’. I am sure the systems are first rate but I would think that the user interface could do with touch of human design.

From what I can see of the system it is great for the person who is looking after a group of older people to keep tabs on what they are doing but I wonder if is going to knock the socks of the user?

Whatever, the GE-Intel should be congratulated for trying to tackle the serious problem of isolation that affects so many older people. Dick Stroud

Silver Travel Advisor

I haven’t seen this web site before. It looks well constructed and to contain some interesting and amusing content.

I particularly liked the useful tips for older travellers that I read in the Economist blog (that was a good bit of publicity for the company).

Things to pack for older travellers:

A local phrase book – to wedge a few pages under wobbly bar tables to avoid spilt drinks
Wet wipes – great for cleaning red wine stains off the hotel bedroom carpet

The problem these sites have, like any other that target the older market, is that they compete with age-neutral sites offering the same and often much better information. For example I noticed a hotel on the site that I haven’t stayed at and found there were 2 comments from past visitors. I went to Tripadvisor and found 552 comments. Which of the two web sites is likely to capture my attention the most?

A nice feature of the site is to offer personal advice. That would be the feature I would be promoting.

I wish them all the best of luck with this venture. It deserves to do well. Dick Stroud

A new meaning for the multi-function phone

Thanks to Laurie Orlov for highlighting a new phone product from Japan.

$255 buys you a Mi-Look from Kyocera that is three devices in one.

Firstly, it’s a basic cell phone with a simple 2-inch QVGA display and three large buttons.

Second, it’s a pedometer that not only tracks how many steps the user has taken but also sends this data via e-mail.

Third, the device has an alarm function. In the case of an emergency, users can just pull the strap that’s attached to the device to trigger an alarm sound and send an email.

There is something very ‘Japanese’ about this product but it certainly provides a new insight into the multi-function phone. Perhaps Apple should put an alarm cord on the iPhone. Perhaps not. Dick Stroud

Luton Airport – not the place you would expect to see new innovations

Tensator is the company that has built the system that projects a nice looking person to help you escape from the airport as fast as possible.

At this level of development it looks like something out of the film Total Recall.

Even this device can respond in multiple languages and I am sure there a lots more innovations to come some of which could be aimed at helping older shoppers. Smart idea. Dick Stroud

Always interesting but disappointedly old

Today the FT has long article about ‘new’ developments to help understand the results of ageing and to improve the way products are designed for older people. Sorry it is behind a paywall.

Much of the article, probably most of it, is US based – a lot focusing on the work that Jo Coughlin does at MIT’s AgeLab.

How disappointing that there is so little to show for all of the government funds that are pumped into UK academia that I am sure has resulted in lots of citations and papers but next to no innovative ideas that might someday become products.

Another disappointment is that we have been reading about the same products and aids for what seems like a lifetime. Don't get me wrong, I think these projects are great and have and are creating lots of new ideas.

I guess you get a new reporter assigned to write about this subject and all of this stuff (Agnes the ageing suit, Para the robotic seal and Ms. Daisy the car simulator) is all totally new. If you have been involved in the older business you have been reading and seeing the same stuff forever.

Where are the really new innovative ideas? OK, a lot of stuff is going on with apps and smart devices but I just do not see Apple quality innovations occurring in the care industry.

Just get your head around this fact – the top 10 UK care companies spend zilch on R&D, probably not surprising since so many of them are technically insolvent or close to it. God help older people if they have to rely on the output of academia to improve their older years.

Sure there are token amounts of money given by government but my suspicion is that this is much more to do with burnishing the minister’s PR imagine than any expectation that it will do any good.

The old business needs a firm kick up the (bit between waist and top of the leg) if it is going to make any radical changes. Dick Stroud

Shrinking inheritances for boomers – and their kids?

I have been working to try an understand one of the many faulty assumptions that politicians have about boomers and their wealth. This article from the US adds to my concerns that we are making a terrible assumption about the wealth that boomers will have between the time they stop generating a decent income to the point they need to spend money on care. I think we can be sure in our assumption that the state will not be funding care so it is left to the individual.

According to this article, as recently as five years ago, economists thought US baby boomers stood to inherit anywhere between $41 trillion to $136 trillion when their parents died.

A few things have changed this forecast. Increasing life spans and health care costs -plus two recessions in the past decade – plus the funding that older people have been forced to provide to their kids.

Now, the economist gurus that the amount of inheritance is more likely to be less than $10 trillion.

To be sure, the amount of money left in Mom and Dad's estate will be significant — a median of $64,000, according to a December report from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College and MetLife insurance. Interestingly, the average is 5 times this amount. Yep, five times. Know what that means? A few people are going to inherit a stash of loot.

The MetLife report looks very interesting (as they always do) since it also talks about the implications of these figures on the amount of wealth that boomers themselves will leave to their kids. I don’t need to do the sums (but I will) to know that it is going a lot less than their parents. Dick Stroud

With so much gloom at home the 50-plus are taking more holidays

The over fifties are more mobile and more active than ever before. Between 2005 and 2010 vacation travel by Europeans aged 55 and over expanded by 17 per cent.

This age group as a whole accounted for more than a quarter of all trips abroad. This corresponds to 78 million holiday trips. As far as holiday preferences are concerned, the over fifties are increasingly distancing themselves from the clichés associated with traditional travel by senior citizens.

While beach holidays outstrip any other type of vacation in Europe, and are even gaining in popularity, individual countries have their own preferences. At the same time, city tours, cruises and excursions have experienced a significant boost among the over fifty-fives.

All of this is according to an analysis commissioned by Messe Berlin and carried out by the World Travel Monitor. If you are in the travel business then you should have a read. Dick Stroud

Older means happier: Most over-50s are content ... blah blah blah

The UK’s Daily Mail newspaper seems to be obsessed with telling the over-50s that they are happy – even if they might not feel that way. Yet another article, yet another set of diabolical photos. At least these two are not by the sea but look as if they have recently escaped from the local mental in institution.

The paper reports that: “around 65 per cent of those in their 50s said they were very happy or quite content, but this rose to 75 per cent for those in their 60s and 76 per cent for those in their 70s.” The source of the results is a survey conducted by the people who run the 50+ Show for the ‘active over 50s’ at London’s Olympia exhibition center.

It is often more informative to read the comments about the article than the article itself. This one hit the nail on the head.

Don't believe all you read in surveys. Most people attending the 50+ Show for the ‘active over 50s’ at London’s Olympia will by definition be ones who're doing well. I hardly think that many of the pensioners living on the bread line and without winter heat would have made the journey. And yes, there are people posting here who're having a great time. But a great many aren't.

Dick Stroud

Smartphones rule the world

We all know that eventually phones = smartphones. It is just a matter of how long will it take for the migration to occur.

This is the latest data from Pew about the ownership characteristics in the US. Nothing very shocking. Dick Stroud

Now I see the potential of QR codes

Recently I wrote about the unfulfilled potential of QR codes.

This application by Tesco (in Korea) is a brilliant demonstration of the power of the technology. Now I get it. How long before we see this in the UK.

A terrific demonstration of the power of smartphones and how they link to the physical world. This has got me thinking about the applications of QR codes for the 50-plus. Dick Stroud

1% makes a lot of difference

A report has just been published in the US called the: “The Potential Impact of the Great Recession on Future Retirement Incomes.”

I really wished we had an institution attempting the same type of research in the UK.

The simulation showed that adults age 25 to 34 in 2008 will see their incomes fall, at the age of 70,  by 4.9 percent (or $3,000 per person) as a result of the recession.

I was shocked by how little impact the recession appeared to have. Then I read the assumptions that include that wage growth resumed in 2010 and continues indefinitely. In fact, the assumptions assume that that the economic conditions prior to the recession were the norm and that what we are experiencing now is a finite blip and then the world returns to ‘normal’. The three charts, showing the assumptions used illustrate the world going on as 'normal' situation.

Sorry guys but I don’t buy this idea. I am much more impressed with the work done by the giant bond company Pimco that talks about the future being the ‘new normal’ when growth returns to 2% not 3%. At this level it means that US unemployment will rise to 12% and there will be little growth in real income.

If you are a marketer then you need to decide if tomorrow's world  is going to be a 2% or 3% place to live and plan accordingly. A bit of free advice – stick with the 2%. Dick Stroud

Age morphing changes behaviour

Fascinating article in the WSJ about how you can using age-morphing to change behavior. I am going to greatly simply the arguments but essentially if a young person sees a credible picture of themselves, at the age of 70, they are more likely to think about what actions they should be taking now – like saving money. Click here if you have a WSJ subscription.

What the article did not say is how it could work the opposite way around. If I see a picture of me looking how I did aged 20 years old will that change my behaviour? Most likely it would make me cringe. Dick Stroud

More older people in the workforce - less young faces

The TUC (the UK’s Trade Union organisation) has published a report called: Age and Gender -What has changed in the labour market in recent years. You can download some graphs and tables but they don't really add that much.

The bottom line is that :

• 56.5% of people aged between 50 and 64 were in work in April 1992. This rose to 64.9% by December 2010.
• Over the same period, the proportion of those aged over 64 in work rose from 5.5% to 9%.
• In April 1992 48.8% of 16 and 17-year-olds were in employment, but that figure had dropped to around 23.6% by December 2010. Around two in three (65.8%) of 18 to 24-year-olds were working in April 1992, but this fell to around 58% by the end of 2010. Much of this is because of the increase uptake of higher education.

The TUC General Secretary was at pains to point at that : “Older people bring a wealth of skills and experience to the workplace. The increasing number of over 65s in work shows that older workers are highly valued and that the government is absolutely right to scrap the default retirement age.”

The guy also stressed that it is not a zero sum game (i.e. one employed older worker equals one less youth in employment).

Strangely, the report didn’t point out that 80% of new jobs generated in the UK were taken-up by overseas workers – mainly young people.

Whatever way you cut the numbers it shows that increasingly you are going to see older people in the workforce. A trend that will accelerate. Dick Stroud

Yet more photos of oldies and water

Today's Daily Mail reports the results of a survey from Life is Strong - the US portal for all things Boomers are interested in - well at least what P&G thinks Boomers are interested in. I am surprised that the company is still supporting this channel. Either it is having some success or it costs so little that it has disappeared into the noise of their marketing spend.

Anyway, the point is that yet again whenever there is something about the 50/60/70-plus the first inclination is to dive into the photo bank of people gallivanting about by the sea.

This obsession with water has existed of ages. Weird. Well not really weired, since I think it demonstrates a very stereotypical (not sure that is a word) way of thinking. Dick Stroud

This could only be Hollywood

Fabulous at 60. Wow. Dick Stroud

Everything, I mean everything, you want to know about fat America

This free report is the definitive work about American obesity.

Like the old saying - where there is muck there's brass - the same applies to obesity.

The Fat Business is huge and will keep growing. A bit like the waistlines.

If this does convince you then I don't know what will

Two-thirds of adults and nearly one-third of children and teens are
currently obese or overweight, putting them at increased risk for more than 20 major
diseases, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease. It’s not just our health that is
suffering: obesity-related medical costs and a less productive workforce are hampering America’s ability to compete in the global economy.

Having just completed this blog posting I read the following article about the constraints that obesity place upon older people. Dick Stroud

The new Specsaver ad

Not as good as some of the earlier ads but still not bad. Dick Stroud

AARP launches online radio

Well, well, well - AARP is launching an Internet radio station with 18 channels, including rock, R&B, country, jazz, classical, Latin and gospel. It's powered by online music service Slacker. The new online venture is programmed by Concord Music Group.

AARP's music service is designed to be easy to use – so they say – and hopes to appeal to those who are intimidated by technology. Listeners can skip to the next song, and are allowed up to six skips per hour.

There are also plans to make its new service available on mobile apps for smartphones and tablets.

It will be interesting to see what level of take-up the channel gets. Dick Stroud

How age-friendly is your home town?

Last week I was in London for a few days – as I am most weeks.

The place was extra busy, teaming with tourists, residents and workers. I really love the buzz of the place but you have to be reasonably fit and resilient to survive travelling. If the crush on the tube doesn’t get you, struggling up countless stairs, then one of the zillions of psychotic cyclists will.

I would love to be able to take a demographic snapshot of the centre of London during a weekday. My bet is we would be surprised how young it is with few people 70-plus.

Of course this will change, or maybe it will not. Maybe the place remains as age-unfriendly as it is and oldies just don’t go there – rather like the situation in most town centers on a Friday and Saturday night. This has implications as squeeze on the incomes of the young continue.

The dynamics of urban, suburbs and rural ageing is a fascinating subject. This is a good article about the age-friendliness of US cities, in particular New York. The bottom line is that virtually nothing is being done to prepare urban areas for the changing demographics other than local initiatives. This appears the norm according to the World Health organization.

In September there is a conference in Dublin about age-friendly cities.

If you are interested in the bigger picture of ageing and its implications then it should be worth visiting. Dick Stroud

Fascinating data about the age profile of social network users

A big caveat – like all third-party research that I report I have no idea about its quality. There are no glaring oddities about this data so let’s take it as correct.

• When it comes to age distribution across the social web, the most active age range is 35-44 year olds (25%) in comparison to just 9% of 18-24 year olds.
• The highest majority of Facebook users are aged between 18-25 (29%) while onTwitter the highest majority of users are 26-34 year olds (30%).
• The average LinkedIn user is 44 years old.
• The average Twitter user is 39 years old.
• The average Facebook user is 38 years old.

Now for the graphics. I really like these - just hope they have some resemblance to the truth! Will be great in presentations. Dick Stroud

iDevices and apps are good for disability and ageing

It really gets up my nose when organisations lump together ageing and disability as being the same 'problem'. A while back the telecoms regulator OFCOM had an advisory group for “ageing and disability”. Like a lot of things I think this is now history, as a result of the ‘cuts’.

Having said all of this, let's be honest, there is a big cross-over between the two things. Business Week has an article about the way that i-things have features that are intrinsically good for people with sensory problems

The iPhone 4 and the iPad 2 come with VoiceOver, a screen reader for those who can’t read print, as well as FaceTime, video-calling software for people who communicate using sign language.

Apple has said that iOS 5—due later this year—will contain improvements to VoiceOver and LED flash and custom vibration settings to let users see and feel when someone is calling.

Two interesting quotes

"Boomers will demand products, services, and workplaces that adapt to their needs and desires," says the chief investment officer at WingSail Capital. Crossover technology such as the iPad, which works well both for people with disabilities and the broader consumer market, are the "holy grail" of business and disability efforts and will drive growth in disability-related capital spending.

Companies such as Apple are motivated, at least in part, to create products that work for people with disabilities because the population is aging, says the marketing director of accessible technology at Lighthouse International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting vision loss.

My research with Kim Walker goes one step further than saying that Apple’s products are ‘good’ for oldies. Most things that Apple does, across all of the customer touchpoints, are age-friendly.

It is no good having terrific disability-friendly devices if all of the other aspects of the organisation, work or public environment are a disability assault course. Dick Stroud

Men and women and health - big difference

Flexcin produces a medication of joint pain.

In one of its blog postings it found the following differences for how men and women use products.

48.3% of women are more proactive in taking Flexcin as a means for joint health care compared with men at 26.5%

15.3% of men order Flexcin for wife; but 83.4% of women order Flexcin for husband.

79.1% of women stay committed to daily use through first three months; only 53.2% for men.

64.6% of women inquire about Flexcin earlier in the joint discomfort process; most men inquire when pain is more severe (55.2%) and joint stiffness has set in.

These results are in line with my own observations about the gender differences indicating that it is an uphill task selling wellness to men. At least selling wellness for the cohort of men who are currently in need of joint pain relief. I am sure (ish) that the gender differences will reduce in future age cohorts. Dick Stroud

iPads are for relaxing - for now

Thanks to David Weigelt’s excellent video newsletter for highlighting this research about the usage pattern of iPads.

Bit.ly, the URL shortening service, analysed the web usage data of the millions links flowing through its network. Their findings (via ReadWriteWeb) confirm what I thought from the day the iPad was launched. People mostly use the device during evenings, when we get home from work. Normal usage patterns for smartphones and computers involve two big spikes, in early morning and mid-morning. This reflects a typical usage pattern for the vast majority of employed.

Who wants to sit hunched in their chair for another 2-3 hour browser session when they get home? Much better to lay back and relax with a tablet in their hand.  As expected, peek usage times for iPad are between 8pm and bed time.

This is what the PC gurus couldn’t get their heads around when the iPad was launched. It is a relaxing lifestyle device not a PC substitute.

How long this distinction will last is uncertain. I am seeing increasing numbers of young people using the iPad as their primary work computer when they are travelling. It will be interesting to see the patterns in 12 months time. Dick Stroud

New Age UK ad - any thoughts?

This ad has a difficult message to convey. The ad starts with the line: “ It is not easy being old – many of us live in poverty and isolation.”

This is spoken by a well looking cheery older lady who then leads the ad into 40 secs of very happy looking people having a good time.

I know that the ad is a vehicle to display all of the things that Age UK does and is aimed at supporters and donors not users.

I just wonder if there isn’t too much of a mismatch between the message and the visuals?

A very subsidiary point. The music for the ad 'Chicken Payback' has an uncanny similarity to a track in the film Practical Magic by Harry Nilsson called Coconut.

I hope the ad does well, because if there was ever a time for the services provided by Age UK it is now. I have to say that the comments from my friends have not been encouraging. Dick Stroud

What is so good about Pret A Manger

I don't go to Pret A Manager because they have the best coffee or the best food, although both are very good. The reason I will take the trouble to walk an extra block or two, to find a Pret, is because of the service level.

What do I mean by service level? They are fast, friendly and their outlets have an energy that is missing in their competitors.

Recently the Sunday Times had a long article about the company that explained that its 224 British outlets receives a weekly visit from secret shopper, whose job it is to assess the store and its staff.

The shops are scored on criteria such as speed of service, product availability and cleanliness. One task for the mystery guest is to rate the “engagement level” of the server — did they “connect with eye contact, a smile and some polite remarks”?

If the store passes — notching up at least 43 points — every team member receives an extra £1 an hour for every hour worked. If a worker is cited by the mystery shopper as having provided outstanding service, they get £50 on top. The payout rises to £100 if the branch scores top marks in the survey.

 A couple of days ago I visited a Pret in London, just after it had opened. The charming oriental lady, who I guess was the manager, proudly served me my coffee and explained it was the 25th anniversary of 'our' company. This was not manufactured engagement and enthusiasm, she meant it. The other staff were equally friendly. A couple of minutes later I see her in the doorway sweeping every last bit of dirt out of the entrance. This is not something that you tell people to do it is because they have pride in their workplace.

Why am I warbling on about where I like to have coffee. It is because in my experience, first rate service  has a disproportional effect on older people. In the sea of poor to average service you notice when you encounter the real thing. That is how you differentiate one cup of hot flavoured water from another.

Well done Pret. Dick Stroud

F-Commerce and age - JWT report

This report (Social Commerce) from JWT is not specifically about the affect of age on the use of commerce associated with Facebook but a lot of analysis addresses this question.

The publishers blurb says that it examines three trends:

The rise of Facebook commerce (retailers selling directly on Facebook)
What innovative retailers and others are doing in these area
Things to from apps that enable sharing while shopping to Facebook Credits.

The age stuff is interesting but not surprising. Really it is just what you would expect knowing the age profile of Facebook users.

The thing that surprises me is how low the interest level is from Millennials. Normally when you ask somebody a question "would you be interested" the answers is normally yes - assuming that it is a vaguely interesting/positive thing.

I wonder if these figures are not showing something of the Facebook-fatigue that we keep reading about? Dick Stroud

The most un-age neutral ad I have seen?

According to BrandChannel, Dell is launching a new “More You” ad campaign this Friday with an emphasis on emotional connection through three of its consumer brands, the Inspiron for casual users, XPS for high-performance customers, and Alienware for gamers.

"We realized it was important to connect more emotionally with customers. Most competitors are neglecting the fact that technology is empowering people, commented Dell’s CMO,  "It will help people think, 'It's about me.'"

Mmm. Well I can tell you this ad is clearly not about me. That's fine, but I am somebody who has bought top of the range Dell kit for the last decade.

Sorry to always compare technology companies to Apple but I am afraid it is difficult not to do so when you can see one company doing things so well and another (Dell) floundering around trying to find a reason to exist.

Don't get me wrong. I always like Dell equipment and the reason for leaving Dell was nothing to do with Dell but mainly due to the allure of Apple and the frustrations of using MS Windows Vista. Sure, things improved with Windows 7 but by then the damage had been done.

I am really not sure if this age segmented approach of Dell is the right way of differentiating a box full  of  generic components of technology. Dick Stroud

Two big American banks call it a day and stop issuing reverse mortgages

Reverse mortgages = Equity release in UK words.

This is a very interesting development when Wells Fargo, the US’s top lender, announcing that it will stop issuing these loans, citing inflexible government regulations and concerns that home prices could continue to sink. Wells Fargo's announcement comes on the heels of Bank of America's move to exit the market earlier this year. As of April, these two banks issued nearly 44% of reverse mortgages, according to research firm Reverse Market Insight.

This is serious stuff. The only way that a great tranche of older Americans and Brits have to live during retirement is to free up some of the cash in their homes. That avenue has just gone or at least become a lot harder

It will be interesting to see what repercussions this has on the UK. In many ways, the decision of these US banks is like making a future call on the value of US domestic property. Their assumption is that it is going to keep falling in price. Dick Stroud

A blog about marketing and the older Canadian

This is a new blog for me. Very nice to see that I am listed in the resources section – thanks.

It looks like it contains some good information. I like the style of writing. So if you want to know about marketing and boomers in Canada have a look. Dick Stroud

Sh-Boomer an new UK electronic mag for the 50-plus

I am not too sure about the name of this venture but the idea might well have legs. This is a new blog come electronic mag for the 50-plus who are still active in consuming 60s music and live events. I know a lot of these types of people.

You can read about the venture in the press release. 

This is what the organisation has to say about itself.


Titled Sh-Boom! after the 1950s doo-wop hit, the magazine will focus on music and stars from the Fifties to the Eighties. It is available FREE. 

As well as being the UK's first-ever music magazine created for the over-50s, Sh-Boom! is also different because it's an interactive digital magazine. It looks like a print magazine but it is read on silver surfers' computers or mobile phones.

The editorial is brought to life by animation, music videos, music tracks and video interviews.

The magazine's digital format is designed to take advantage of the over-50s' voracious appetite for the Internet, and their growing interest in digital reading.

I wish them the very best of luck with the venture and will look back in a few months to see how they are getting-on.

Just a word of advice - a lot of my friends who are very active consumers of music live outside the UK - don't forget this group. Also, they tend to be a relatively wealthy bunch. Dick Stroud

My 'final' words about the care industry in the UK

I have been wittering on about the UK Care Industry for far too much of the time. Today, there is a major report published in the UK about the future funding of the industry.

The report and documentation is a must-have for anybody interested in the market for older people who require care or might require care. It is a HUGE market.

It is an excellent piece of research and makes a set of coherent recommendations that I am sure will be kicked into the the long grass of politics. If only the UK Government had the (excuse me), the balls, to grasp this as an opportunity to make their mark on history - something like the Victorians who radically changed the UK's social housing/transport/sanitation. Unfortunately, the UK's political class can only think in how their actions affect tomorrows headlines. Moan over.

That doesn't detract from the importance of it as a body of knowledge. Dick Stroud

Libraries, swimming pools or care for the elderly

Yesterday, there was a BBC radio programme (File on 4) about the state of the UK care industry. If you have anything to do with the care sector, have an elderly relative who might need care or want an insight into how your own old age might end-up then I suggest you have a listen. I think the radio programme is only accessible from within the UK.

In response to public funding reductions local authorities have taken the easy and painless (to them) route of pressuring their care providers to do more for less. If you don’t believe me have a look at the analysis done by Age UK.

Rather than confront the fundamental question about the priorities for public spending they have looked for the easy budgets to cut.

Is it more important to refurbish the local authority offices; to landscape the market square, to continue funding a loss making park-and-ride scheme than to divert funding to look after the elderly? Where I live in Salisbury the answer is the elderly come second to all of these options.

The programme explains how local authorities have continually reduced the fees paid to support older people to such a point that they are now untenable. It has even got to the point where there are a series of Judicial Reviews that are forcing councils to take account of the feasibility of delivering care when they force down the monies they pay.

UK public sector workers are striking to protect their gold-plated employment rights whilst at the same time pressuring the elderly to accept second-rate services. I am sure they do not see it this way but that is the result of maintaining their own standard of living whilst cutting the cost of care per person year after year. What we pay to enable local authority workers to retire early on index linked pensions means funds are not available to spend on the elderly.

As long as funding for care is administered by local authorities then this deplorable situation will continue. Central Government needs to ring-fence the spending on the elderly at a level that provides an acceptable levels of care.

Unfortunately (for the elderly) this approach would go against the professed policy of Coalition of ‘localism’ and will be the solution of last resort. It will take a few more human rights reports and media scare stories before this solution is adopted.

My personal view is that local authorities have neither the wit or will to take the hard decisions about what services they fund and those they cut. Unless central government takes direct control of this problem then the disaster that is the elderly care will continue to gain momentum. Dick Stroud

Green fingered over-50s

RIAS is a UK provider of all types of insurance for the over-50s. The company recently published some research about the amount of money older people have invested in their gardens as a way of demonstrating how much of their garden equipment is uninsured.

I have absolutely no idea if these numbers are right or wrong. RIAS reckons us Brits have over £9 billion 'invested' in our gardens (i.e. garden sheds, mowers, greenhouses...)

Of this amount, the over-50s account for a large percentage and they spend around £1.5 Billion on gardening stuff.

Have a look at the press release for a complete breakdown of where all of this money is spent.

Even if the numbers are rubbish you can see the magnitude of the spend on gardening is considerable. Dick Stroud

Demographics of Groupon users in the US

I have to say I don't too much about Groupon. It looks like I behave like other members of my age group if these numbers are to be believed.

I doubt if the UK is that much different to the US. Dick Stroud

Under 25 and Over 54: The Power of Demographic Outliers

I think that these two graphics from this Nielsen blog posting pretty much speak for themselves. Dick Stroud

CareHomeAdvisor: now that’s what we need

The title of this blog posting is same as an article in today's Times by Janice Turner.

Because of paywalls I cannot give you link but her views a pretty much the same as I wrote in 2010.

If you want to find out any information about a UK care home then you might as well brew some tea and try and read the resulting tea leaves.

We have an organisation called the Quality Care Commission (CQC) that is supposed to provide information so that people can make informed decisions. To say that the commission is useless is being very kind. The organisation should be disbanded because it gives the impression that somebody knows what is happening care homes when in truth they haven't a clue.

This is what the Times columnist said

Besides, the CQC, with breathtaking idiocy, has just abandoned its star system altogether. It is devising a new grading scheme next year, but that will be preoccupied with “compliance” with certain health and safety criteria. It won’t tell you if it’s nice. No wonder the National Care Homes Congress, the care homes union, just gave the CQC a vote of no confidence: owners can invest a fortune in a home, have fabulous carers, yet get no recognition.

I have thought for a long time that a Tripadvisor for care would be a great idea. I am not the only one who has come to this conclusion.Perhaps somebody would like to put up the money to make it a reality? If this government had any idea what it was doing about care provision it would do it itself. God forbid not using public sector staff but to fund a bunch of motivated people in the private sector who are aghast at the mess that the care industry is becoming. Dick Stroud

Old and broke: The long-term outlook for the UK’s public finances

Reform is UK think tank that has a particular view of the world – most of the time I support its conclusions. I even pay a subscription to receive its reports and to attend its events.

This paper is a good summary of the overall state of the ‘challenges’ posed by the ageing population in the UK. In particular the cost of medical and long term care.

I find that Reform’s analysis on this subject suffers from a major problem – it talks in ‘average’ terms and doesn’t drill down into the distribution of wealth and income. That is not good enough.

The report contains too much of this boilerplate text

It has been estimated that people over the age of 60 have more than 80 per cent of Britain’s wealth and over £1 trillion in unmortgaged equity. This cohort has benefitted from windfall gains from a long period of house price inflation higher than wage and price inflation

This is the same trap as David Willetts analysis of the subject falls into. The numbers are probably correct but the unsaid implications that result from the statements are not.

You have to drill down into the detail of the distribution of this wealth and then how the housing equity wealth will be need to be spent before people get to the point of requiring care services. You also need to take account of the impact of inflation on this wealth.

Sorry guys but this is back of an envelope type calculations and conclusions. Dick Stroud

Could this win health and wellness older shopper?

It happens sometimes, but not too often, that private label shows name brands what they should be doing to build consumer trust.

Safeway’s nutrition label program on its Open Nature line does just this by listing ingredients on the front of packages in easily readable type. What a great idea. Dick Stroud