"A rise in the number of older people should be a cause for celebration, but unfortunately this year's State of Ageing report suggests too many of our older people are living in poverty and suffering from preventable ill-health. The detailed analysis shows that the burden of poverty and ill-health falls disproportionately on people of ethnic minority background, amongst others."
“Action should have been taken. Action must be taken now to tackle poverty and racial inequality, with improvement in wages and benefits as well as sustained investment in social housing, public transport and provision of health and care, combined with leadership on tackling the scourge of racism. Older people from all communities deserve better.”
The Centre for Ageing Better is calling for improved data collection that captures the diversity of the country’s older population.
To effectively document and understand ethnic health inequalities in later life, Ageing Better is calling for ethnicity data reporting to be mandatory in all official and statutory statistics and data monitoring.
Ageing Better is also calling for all research studies to be designed with sufficiently large and representative samples of ethnic minority groups and to include questions on ethnicity, identity and experiences of racism and racial discrimination.