Have this week's events brought good news or bad for older
people?
By Rebecca Law, Media and PR Officer
This was a bad week for Mervyn King, who, as he
would have us believe, has his hands tied. The Governor of the Bank
of England insisted that he is unable to help savers, warning that
any efforts to reward their prudence would push the country back
into recession.
Returns on savings, as well as annuities, have been driven to
record lows as a result of the Bank's emergency measures of pumping
£325 billion of new money into the economy.
"I have deep sympathy for those who are totally unconnected with
the origins of the financial crisis, who suddenly find that returns
on their savings have reached negligible levels," Mervyn assured
us. "All groups in society are suffering from the financial
crisis...Difficult though it is, we have to make a difficult
judgement about the right course of action for the economy as a
whole."
But there are different types of savers and Mervyn doesn't
distinguish between them. Long-term savers can sit tight and
reasonably expect the return on their savings to increase over
time. But for those, like pensioners, who need to spend the
interest on their savings no such long view is available. And the
consequences can be tragic. The NHS Information Centre published
figures this week showing that the number of hypothermia deaths has
doubled in the last five years - and three quarters of those
affected are over 60. Older people, quite often, are forced to
choose between heating or eating because they simply cannot keep up
with the rising prices of food and fuel. A survey published by Age
UK last month showed that half of pensioners had turned the heating
down to save money.
Charities and campaigners have gathered together to urge the
government to scrap VAT on household energy bills. Bringing
household fuel in line with zero-rated water and food could help to
bring immediate relief to thousands of older people, who have
quietly suffered the impact of low interest rates, plummeting
pension payouts and rocketing inflation rates, for the sake of the
economy, for too long.
For all the bad news, we need something to put a smile back on
our face. That means it's time for another good
week canine rescue story. Just three weeks ago we reported
on the story of 73-year-old Maurice Holder who was rescued by his
11-year-old Labradoodle, Monty, after plunging 40ft down a
ravine.
This week, it was the turn of Zulu, a black terrier, to step
into the limelight, whose loving heroics make even the chivalrous
swagger of Ryan Gosling pale into insignificance (hamming it up?
Us?).
Zulu had been travelling with his 62-year-old owner, Donald
McGregor, in a 4x4 Ford Ranger when the vehicle overturned and
hurtled down a steep slope. Zulu was thrown from the vehicle, but
Mr McGregor was left trapped inside.
Zulu swiftly sprung into action, sprinting half a mile to the
home of Mr McGregor's daughter, alerting her to the emergency. Miss
McGregor was quoted in the Daily Mail this week saying "I
knew it was strange the dog just turning up like that, so straight
away I thought something must have happened. I went out on the quad
bike and heard my dad shouting."
With a rapidly-dropping tide, emergency services were able to
rescue Mr McGregor, whose accident had occurred on a Scots island,
off the mainland, in the nick of time.
"If I'd have been 20 minutes later, my dad wouldn't have been
able to get off the island," said Miss McGregor. Good dog,
Zulu!
To read Zulu's full story,
click here.
