The age of ageing | Auckland News | Local News in Auckland

This year, the first of the baby boomer generation turns 65. As the bulging population heads into the pension years and the country heads towards an unprecedented population of oldies, can Auckland cope with the change? Hayley Hannan reports.

Noeline Billing takes a deep breath and rocks forward in her armchair. We've managed to catch her in a rare moment of free time. Mondays are split: working at Age Concern Counties Manukau, visiting her mother-in-law at her retirement home, ferrying two grandchildren from school (40 minutes' drive away) to swimming and back to their home.

Whew. At the age of 62, Noeline is an example of a new trend, the "club sandwich generation".

Due to increased life expectancy, people such as Noeline are caught caring for several generations of their families. She's the meat in the middle of a multilayered dependancy sandwich.

"My mother-in-law gave me her power of attorney years ago. At the end of last year she had a stroke and so now I have had to take her under my wing. I've had to sell her house and get her into a retirement home because she needs 24-hour care."

On the other side of the sandwich, the Papatoetoe resident has been helping with her grandchildren since her daughter returned from the United Kingdom a few years ago.

"[My husband and I] tried to warn her that things had changed in the eight and a half years since she lived here. We tried to explain the situation was different. It's a lot harder."

Noeline's daughter, unable to find work hours that fit around a school schedule, asked her to collect the children from school and mind the pair for two days a week.

Halfway through our interview, Hairy Maclary winds her way under my legs. The neighbours left the plump cat behind after she refused to leave Noeline's house.

It seems Noeline is more than generous, and helps out wherever she can.

The love for her family is evident. Walls and cabinets are proudly adorned with photos of her children and grandchildren, black frames around the beaming faces.

"I'm happy to help out. My mother, she never worked because she was always at home, so both the children could be left with her. But she didn't have to look after her parents; they passed away when I was very young."

How much longer she can keep this up?

"I'll start slowing down in about three to four years when I reach 65. Then I'll think about finishing work."

One of hundreds of thousands of the baby boomer generation in Auckland, Noeline is one of a bulging population that is heading for retirement, the pension and a longer life expectancy.

This year, the first of the baby boomers - the generation born between 1946 and 1964 - turn 65.

Experts predict a major change in society's values, expectations and, eventually, government spending.

Baby boomers were born during the post-World War II boom. Growing up in a time of privilege, this generation was among the healthiest and wealthiest.

New Zealand is a country with a bulk of this generation, enjoying one of the highest birth rates - 4.2 births per woman over 19 years. But, as the generation ages, the country will have to change with them.

We can expect more people to live like Noeline: doing more when she might have expected to be easing into doing less.

Over the past 100 years, we have gained an extra 20 years of life. This has stacked generations, with an increasing need for informal carers for even older family members. At the moment, demographics reveal a trend of baby boomers looking after generations on either side of their own.

Barbara Horrell, a doctoral researcher from Timaru, has documented the change. She's analysing a Massey study looking at who cares for the carers. "The thing I hadn't thought about - and hadn't expected - was that it's more than three generations caring for each other. It's more like a club sandwich, because it can envelop four or five generations."

Data, collected from 100 carers through an internet forum and phone calls, shows it's usually women who do the caring in a web of relationships. "There's a group of women in their 60s who are caring for older parents or family members, and they are also caring for their grandchildren. They are working and caring."

Ms Horrell expects the web will grow only more tangled. "Usually, people are reported to be staying in their own homes for longer because it's the family and friends that pick up the bulk of the caring. It's family and friends around the clock."

Often the filling in the sandwich is doing what's expected of them, she says, and can be looking after the whole family - older and younger.

These "informal carers" will need more help, support and further training if they're expected to continue to look after multiple generations, says Ms Horrell.

Looking after the older generation is becoming more labour-intensive. "They're expected to do more complex things than in the past. People don't just take to bed anymore. Carers have to change dressings, monitor medications and are increasingly expected to do more of what we call nursing care."

Ms Horrell expects the younger generations and men will help out more in the future. "There's no typical carer. It's very complex. Most of the carers now are women, about 70 to 80 per cent. But a lot of men are living longer. There's going to be more men who are caring for spouses."

The sandwich generation's stamina won't last forever. Like their parents, these super-carers will soon reach the stage of needing the favour returned. For Noeline, it's not something she's thought about yet.

"I have got good family support so I can't imagine any great problems there. If there was any support required, they would be only too agreeable. It would virtually be a reverse."

It's a bit hard to plan to use government or paid support, she says, until it happens.

"You have got to actually qualify for these social services because what is wrong with you might not be something that the government is prepared to cover."

Noeline would like to stay in her Papatoetoe home for as long as possible, and will only move to a rest home when or if it's necessary. She doesn't expect to age to that point for another 10 to 15 years, but admits she can't predict what's around the corner.

Many of Noeline's friends are in similar circumstances; she can name a few other people who are caring for multiple generations, who would also expect younger generations to look after them.

"I have only a few friends without children. They're realistic enough to know that they are going to have to go into a retirement village or into care."

A welfare wave is on the way as the sandwich generation ages, says Professor Natalie Jackson, director of Waikato University's population centre. More people will need the pension for a longer time.

"New Zealand had one of the highest birth rates in the developed world: 4.2 births per woman. We can't really look to see what other countries have done.

"In another five years, 100,000 people will turn 65 and every one of them wants a pension."

The welfare system, she says, was developed from 1898 until 1934, when only four per cent of the population was aged over 65 and, therefore, eligible for a pension. Now, the pension age remains the same, but the population's circumstances are different.

"There's a flat line for accessibility, but a rocketing life expectancy. It's just not sustainable."

Life expectancy in the 1930s was around 55 for males, and 59 for females. Now, life expectancy is about 78 for males and 82 for females. By 2061, it is expected to climb to 86 for males and 89 for females.

People need to wake up to the changing population, she says, at both a local and national level.

"I think the first thing that needs to be done is that national government and local government have to get in touch with the local demographics and try to figure out how it's going to affect them.

"If you've got one quarter of your population wanting rates discounted, how do you deliver the services? People's expectations may have to be trimmed back a little bit."

A further side effect of longer lifespans is that the retirement age may have to be adjusted. The sandwich generation may have to stay in the workforce, and continue to spend generously, at the same time as caring for multiple generations.

Dr Elizabeth Spellacy, a Tauranga geriatrician with an interest in the ageing population, predicts the retirement age will creep up to 73 by 2050.

Already, we're seeing people working beyond the traditional age of retirement. In 1991, 25,000 over-65s were still working. In 2006, that had risen to 62,000. In 20 years, around 240,000 over- 65s will still be in the workforce.

"We are going to be needed for the workforce, but we are also going to have to work longer for our own benefit. Work maintains us all and gives us a social network."

Work into the later years isn't all bad; Dr Spellacy suggests many older people use their extended years to branch out in an entrepreneurial direction, or to retrain for an entirely different career.

"Our careers are changing, the needs of the workforce are changing. What is important is the role of continuing education and, obviously, training for these different roles."

She says a lot of people looking at population ageing regret the Budget cuts to student loans over the age of 55 and last year's cuts to continuing education.

As the baby boomers age, the generational spread evens out.

Dr Spellacy predicts the country will shift from a triangular population shape - heavy in young people and light on the older generation - to a rectangular shape with a more balanced generational spread.

Essentially, what lies ahead is a balancing act. As the older generation hangs onto jobs for longer, it could become harder for the younger generation to find paid work. The Auckland workforce already faces 16 new entrants for every 10 exits. It'll be a juggle to balance the workforce and welfare payments.

As the club sandwiches continue to expand, stacked with added fillings, I ask each of the specialists whether society is prepared for the rising tide of ageing. From each I get the same reply.

"No. Absolutely not," states Dr Spellacy, "and that's mainly because I don't think there have been leaders in the discussion. The Government has a much shorter focus. Most of our organisations have got a much shorter focus."

We're suddenly seeing a lot of interest, she says, in something that's been coming for a very long time.

"Soon, we're all going to be looking after each other. So, possibly, instead of going to the gym and working off energy, we can go and mow each other's lawns."

What kind of meat, I ask Noeline, does she feel like in the middle of the dependancy sandwich?

"I'd say I'm probably more like a steak because you have got to be fairly firm and positive with what you're doing. You wouldn't want to be a piece of ham and be soft and be manipulated by people."

Boomer times

The Business of Ageing, a Ministry of Social Development report released this year, says baby boomers need to work longer and spend their full potential for the Government to afford their support payments. It predicts boomers could contribute billions to the economy - we just have to take advantage of its potential.

By 2051 New Zealanders over 65 are expected to:

• Make up 7 to 10 per cent of the labour force, up from 3 to 4 per cent in 2011 
  * Contribute $1.8 billion tax from earnings, up from about $200 million in 2011 
  * Spend over $45 billion, compared to $10 billion in 2011 
  * Earn over $10 billion from paid employment, up from about $1 billion in 2011.

The numbers

Life expectancy is now about 78 for men and 82 for women. By 2061 it is expected to climb to 86 for men and 89 for women. In 2010 there were about half a million people over 65, 12 per cent of the population. By 2051 it's estimated there'll be 1.2 million over 65, 26 per cent of the population.