Immigrants to the UK are probably accustomed to demonisation, as are single mothers and, of course, teenagers (usually for being, um, teenagers). To the genus scapegoat, we can now add older people.
We have in the past come close with the famous "bed blocker" tag, but the Intergenerational Foundation - a left-leaning think-tank of all things - has come up trumps with bedroom-blockers.
These are retired home owners who have the nerve to remain in their own properties long after their children have moved out and their partners or spouses have died. The bare-faced cheek of these people.
The foundation suggests that they should be taxed out of their homes and - I paraphrase - bugger off to a one-bed granny flat perhaps, and let younger families buy their home, the home that is a repository of memories and a place their children, grandchildren and relatives can stay. Kinship support anyone?
Speaking of support, there may come a time when that older home owner might need extra help, perhaps from a close friend or family member who could stay overnight or even move in as a carer. The alternative - a move into a one-bedroom flat - would make this support difficult, uncomfortable or just impossible to maintain.
But not to worry: we have a network of successful care homes where they could spend their final years, no? Well, we do, but that is assuming the companies running them do not go bust, that the settings meet inspection standards, they have enough staff, those staff are trained and all those horror stories we read are the exception. And who wants to end their days in even the best of residential care?
One other thing: no one before has thought of blaming the elderly for the nation's housing shortage, yet it is our inability to build housing, social and private, at both ends of the price range that is the root of the problem, whether the Intergenerational Foundation wants to admit it or not. Its efforts would be more appreciated by this blogger on addressing this and lobbying for new-build so we can all have somewhere decent to live.
Small mercies, though. The think-tank stopped short of describing older home owners as pension-snatchers; but that cliché "a burden on society" presses weightily on the lips.
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