Grey Policies: Caring for the Elderly

Abstract

Sweden has been proud of the way in which it has provided for its elderly population. So generous have the benefits and services been that one economist in the 1970s wondered whether “too much was being done for the elderly” (Wilson 1979). This could not have been an issue for many countries. Health care and social services — on which elderly people depend disproportionately — were provided free or with minimal charges. The pension system gave most elderly people an income close to that enjoyed while working. However, with 18 per cent of the population above the age of 65 and nearly 6 per cent over 80, the 1990s were bound to present difficulties. Demographic pressures added to the emergence of economic problems. The rise in unemployment, the related costs, and the perceived need to reduce social expenditure, meant that provision for the elderly would come under scrutiny like other aspects of the welfare system.

An increase in political participation of pensioners has been observed at all government levels during the past ten years. Sweden’s pensioners show all the signs of grey activism.

(Mark Blake 1997 p. 59)