Glaring parallels illuminate the poverty of 1850s Victorian England and the current EU polity. As the 2008 recession abates, most European economies are returning – uncertainly – to positive growth. EU unemployment rates average at 10%, common currency problems are testing community solidarity while budgetary cutbacks initiated in many member States are impacting strongly on the public benefits and services for vulnerable groups (particularly, children and older people and people with disabilities). The impact on future generations of elderly – cohorts which are growing in number just as the working populations supporting them declines – depends to a large part on how current problems are resolved at country, regional and European level.
This Policy Brief examines the picture for the current generation of older people, with particular reference to their exclusion from material resources, an absence which triggers and identifies other forms of exclusions for older people. Income is used as a primary measure of exclusion (following Atkinson), but Sen’s ideas, emphasising agency freedom and capability aspects of welfare, are also adopted.