Mass Lobby Day Report.

Hundreds flocked to Westminster to end ageism!

In a landmark moment in the fight for age equality, Hundreds of people from across the UK including Elder Protections Director Ed Mullenger flocked to Westminster on the 18th April to lobby MPs, communicating one very clear message to the government ban age discrimination.

The Help the Aged Mass Lobby for Age Equality saw people seize the opportunity to meet their MP face-to-face and demand a ban on age discrimination before the Government makes its final decisions on the Discrimination Law Review,the proposal for new laws to be drawn up in the forthcoming Single Equalities Bill.

As it stands, despite the Governments commitment to creating a culture of zero tolerance of unequal treatment of people based on their age, race, gender and disability, Help the Aged continues to uncover instances of age discrimination in goods, facilities and services.

Ely campaigner Ed Mullenger, who took part in the Help the Aged Just Equal Treatment Campaign, made his views on elder discrimination and abuse clear by meeting MP for South Cambridgeshire James Paice in Parliament during the afternoon of the mass lobby.

Ed met Mr Paice in the central lobby of Parliament and discussed the need to bring in new legislation to protect the elderly and vulnerable adults to the same level as child protection ensuring that perpetrators of abuse on the elderly are brought to justice.

Examples talked about were cases where elderly people were doped with medication in care homes to make them easy to manage, or domiciliary care workers exploiting their elderly clients. Amongst other things Ed talked about with Mr Paice, was the need to end the discrimination that elderly people suffer just because of their age, an example Ed gave was how an elderly couple he had talked to could no longer visit their daughter in America because they were refused travel insurance for being 75 years of age!

Other points of discrimination discussed that could be addressed through a single Equalities law, were things like doctors dismissing pain as just getting old, health programmes or certain drugs having an upper age limit.

Ed said that the whole event had been very positive and he was able to talk to many different people from all walks of life about elder abuse and discrimination including acclaimed actress Sylvia Syms who Ed was photographed with after her speech where she made it quite clear to MPs by telling them Age discrimination impacts on us all, as old age happens to us all. And just as weve seen great movements in race and gender equality in our lifetime, now it is time to stand up against age discrimination.

Everyone deserves to be treated equally and with respect regardless of age. We have the vote, and we will bloody well use it, get rid of ageism and restore dignity to the elderly.

Kate Jopling, Senior Policy Manager at Help the Aged, explains: 'Our research shows that 73 per cent of people agree that older people face discrimination on grounds of age in their everyday lives. Older people want equal treatment and they expect their government to take action on age discrimination.

Backed by Help the Aged, Ed is calling for two new pieces of legislation to be recommended in the Discrimination Law Review: a ban on age discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services and a positive duty on public bodies to promote age equality. While positive duties to promote equality already exist for race and disability, and will soon come into force for gender equality, age discrimination remains the last acceptable form of discrimination and thats unacceptable.

Representation from the Government at the mornings event included key speaker, Equalities Minister Meg Munn, who says: 'The Government is strongly committed to tackling age discrimination in all walks of life. We have prohibited it in employment and vocational training and are tackling it further in the provision of public services for example, through the National Service Framework for Older People, which has an explicit focus on tackling age discrimination in service delivery. The Discrimination Law Review will shortly be consulting on whether further steps are necessary.

New legislation which banned age discrimination in employment and training came into force throughout the UK in October 2006, however this protection stops as soon as one steps outside the office doors, where age discrimination of any shape and form is still completely legal.

Too Old: Older peoples accounts of discrimination, exclusion and rejection, is a report from Research on Age Discrimination a two year research study funded by the Big Lottery Fund and undertaken by Help the Aged and The Open University.

Examples of age discrimination include:

• Doctors dismissing pain as just getting old
• Health programmes or certain drugs having an upper age limit
• Older patients in hospitals having their food taken away before they have finished eating
• Older patients having requests for cleaning of teeth rejected because they were cleaned the day before
• Vital health services for older people which affect quality of life, such as chiropody, not given priority
• Travel insurance companies not offering quotes to those over 75
• Media advertising making fun of older people to sell products
• Bank loans and certain accounts refused on the basis of age
• Bus drivers not waiting for older passengers to be seated before driving off
• Reports of abuse going uninvestigated simply because they are old they dont know what they are saying