GOVERNMENT MUST ACT TO DELIVER RIGHTS FOR OLDER PEOPLE

12.00.00am GMT Fri 7th Dec 2007

Improved sharing of best practice between European countries, further anti-discrimination legislation and better financial provisions must lead the drive to provide older people with the increased dignity and security they deserve, according to a Liberal Democrat Euro MP.

Liz Lynne MEP, Vice President of the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee, spoke today at a conference in London to celebrate the achievements of the European Year of Equal Opportunities 2007, but also to discuss what more needs to be done. The conference was organised by Help the Aged and attended by politicians, the government's equality department and many older people.

Speaking today, Liz Lynne said:

"In the UK, 25,000 older people continue to die every year due to the cold weather; 2.2 million older people live in poverty and 500,000 older people are being subjected to elder abuse as we speak. These are horrific statistics; surely we owe our older people more than this?

"The Government must do more to deliver a society free from discrimination, abuse, poverty and social exclusion. There is no need to reinvent the wheel; we must look at how other EU countries deal with these issues; in Finland and Sweden for example, it is much colder than the UK, but "excess" deaths due to winter cold are almost unheard of."

"Thousands of people of all ages continue to face discrimination in the workplace due to the UK Government's interpretation of EU anti-discrimination legislation and a lack of awareness of their rights and as many as 10 percent of EU citizens aged 60 and older experience financial, physical or other abuse.

"The UK government must now support EU plans to bring forward new legislation to combat discrimination in access to goods and services which will help in areas such as medical treatment.

"Failure to progress in these areas will lead to the continuing exclusion, abuse and unnecessary death of hundreds of thousands of older people."

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Liz Lynne was the Liberal Democrat Shadow Rapporteur on the European Employment Directive 2000, and with Age Concern and Eurolink Age, ensured age was retained within the Directive.

Age anti-discrimination legislation was introduced in the UK in 2006 as a direct result of the European Employment Directive 2000. Under this directive, discrimination in the employment field on the grounds of a person's disability, age, religion or sexual orientation must be outlawed in all EU countries. The deadline for introducing this directive into member state law was December 2003. However, The UK government requested a delay of 12 months to introduce legislation to outlaw disability discrimination, and 3 years to outlaw age discrimination.

Liz Lynne MEP was author of the 2007 joint report for the European Parliament on Social Protection, Social Inclusion and Social Reality Stocktaking which was adopted by the European Parliament earlier this month. The report is the European Parliament's response to the adoption by the European Council in Spring and the European Commission of reports on 'social reality stocktaking'. Please find a link to the report:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A6-2007-0400+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN

Liz Lynne has tabled several parliamentary questions on the subject of ageing. On World Elder Abuse Day, 15th June 2006, Liz Lynne held a conference at the European Parliament with UK Charity Age Concern. At the Liberal Democrat Party conference in September 2007, she hosted a seminar on Elder Abuse across the EU.

In recent years it has emerged that a suspected half a million older people in the UK suffer abuse or neglect and in 80% of cases the abuser is known to the victim.

Help the Aged: http://www.helptheaged.org.uk/en-gb