Age or Need?

Should benefits for older people be based on age or need? Do programmes that serve only older people people deflect resources that should go to other people? Some of the contributors to this volume argue that social service programmes should be based on need, rather than defined groups of people. Apart from anything else, age-based programmes confirm negative stereotypes of older people, and lump them into an undifferentiated group. But would the reform of social services along these lines jeopardize the recent progress made in the condition of older people? New thoughts and new information are provided in support of both arguments.



'Here is a ringside seat at a critical juncture in the social reconstruction of old age' -- Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Vol 14, No 1, Nov 1984