Help the Aged

My local Community Council observes a long standing tradition of giving a Christmas hamper to all senior citizens over the age of seventy five. On the face of it this is an admirable altruistic gesture, displaying due regard for the privations suffered by the aged at the coldest and potentially most cheerless time of year.

I have a problem with this. It’s not that I object to helping out the needy at Christmas: the problem is that the majority of them aren’t remotely needy. They have mostly retired to this area after selling houses in the south east of England or Edinburgh. They have fat capital sums in the bank and personal pension schemes. Judging by the new cars they drive (Mercs and Jags mainly), it should be obvious to a blind man that they aren’t exactly on the breadline.

Frankly it annoys me that we continue to equate age with poverty. Nobody is proposing that we hand out hampers to people who are unemployed and genuinely in need. In rural tourist areas it is quite common for people to be on benefits during the winter as most of the work available is of a seasonal nature. I’m sure they would appreciate a half bottle of whisky, a plum pudding, and some shortbread.

I’m not a great believer in universal benefits. Surely it would be better to divert greater resources to those in the most need. That, however, leads to means testing, and we all know how loathe the elderly are to accept what they perceive as charity.

I suppose the arctic winter (fat chance) that we have been told to prepare for will kill off most of the 65-75 age group, thus reducing the Christmas hamper drain on resources to a more acceptable level in future years. If that doesn’t get them perhaps avian flu will.

Something’s got to give. If things carry on at this rate nobody will have enough money left to pamper their grasping sprogs with PSP’s and drug rehabilitation therapy. I just don’t know what the world’s coming to.