The voices behind the numbers
Our new State of Ageing report details how older people from some Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds are more likely to live in poverty, poor housing and poorer health than average.
Our Evidence Manager, Sarah Wilkinson, explains how we engaged with older people in their communities to understand what this means to their real-life experiences.
Last month we published our landmark State of Ageing 2023-24 report. It is the most detailed report on the lives of older people to date, drawing from a wide range of statistical sources to paint a picture of ageing in England today. But we know that statistics can only tell us so much. It is also vital to listen to older people about what is important in their lives, and how some of the trends we see in the numbers affect them day-to-day.
We know from State of Ageing that diversity among older people is increasing, and we know that older people from some Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds are more likely to live in poverty and poor housing, and be in poorer health, than average. We also know that the cost-of-living crisis is having an unequal impact on people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.
So it was a privilege to be involved in a research project with the University of Manchester into this impact, and to hear the experiences of older people from minority ethnic backgrounds first hand.
This study, by Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group with Manchester BME network and the Centre for Ageing Better, published a report recently.
It details how existing inequalities place older people with Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds at increased risk from the impact of high inflation, food insecurity and spiralling energy prices.
The reasons for this increased risk include:
- the long-term impact of the pandemic
- housing insecurity
- the rising price of imported food
- racism and discrimination
- language barriers resulting in limited access to services
One-to-one qualitative interviews, in the chosen language of each participant, gathered evidence from older people directly affected by the cost-of-living crisis, and the community groups that support them. This highlighted the pressures the crisis is putting on family relationships and housing, in addition to everyday spending particularly on food and energy.
I’m living in a crisis. I’m in arrears with the mortgage and I’m worried about losing my home. My children help with the repayments, or else I would have lost the house some time ago. I’ve had to rent out two rooms so that there is some income coming in. The future feels really uncertain. I want to stay in my own home and feel secure.
The report makes a number of recommendations for local action including providing culturally sensitive services to maintain the independence of older people from diverse backgrounds, and prioritising culturally appropriate community food provision.
It backs our national calls for a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing in England and a new governmental race equality strategy to prevent inequality increasing as people age, and also echoes our call for more evidence on diversity in ageing.
In our summary State of Ageing report we include quotes from this Greater Manchester study to illustrate how the trends that we report affect people’s daily lives. But beyond this the real value was in the opportunity to speak with the research participants and researchers, which enrichened our understanding of the issues emerging in our analysis for State of Ageing.
And to gain an even broader picture of how people experience ageing across the country, we additionally spoke to around 40 older people from diverse backgrounds, through our own Experts by Experience network and further community conversations in Manchester and London, thanks to Wai Yin Society and Third Age Project.
We discussed some really important issues such as digital inclusion and language barriers, caring and the value of community as well as current financial pressures.
The cost of living has affected us in so many ways, that is, we can no longer afford a balanced diet…. We’re not managing at all. We’ve already reduced our budget sticking to the very basic: rice, to keep us going. We feel this difference in our bodies more than anywhere else. People will notice we’re no longer as healthy as we used to be.
This direct engagement with older people not only validated the data we were still collating, it informed the way we wrote about ageing, and the content of our report. For example through our conversations we gained a better understanding of how unpaid caring roles are understood differently in different ethnic communities, which helped us explain differences in the self-reported caring statistics in the Census.
And as well as reflecting these experiences in our written report, we also wanted to give a platform to people to speak about their own views and experiences, in their own words. We have produced a series of videos which capture these experiences. The first is available here and more will be released in the coming months.
An important lesson for all to take away from this is that if we want to know what would make older people’s lives better we need to know what older people think, feel, and experience.
We need to be speaking with older people; listening to what they have to say and collaborating to shape outcomes that will better meet the needs of older people and our growing ageing population.
For more information about MUARG’s cost of living research contact [email protected]
