1 in 5 people over 50 have no children and therefore no grandchildren.
The more fundamental problem is that by automatically pigeonholing all older people as grandparents it allows the narrative that all older people have family to help and support them to go unchallenged.
Already 1.2 million people over 65 are not parents and by 2032, the number of single people with disabilities and no children will rise by 80% to around 850,000 people.
We know that one result of this is that people ageing without children are 25% more likely to go into residential care at a younger age and with a lower level of dependency.
Unless we are realistic about how much care and support adult children provide, we will not see the huge gap left when there are no children.
We cannot go on as if nothing has changed – as though all older people are grandparents or parents and have adult children around to help them.