Britain is no country for 100,000 lonely old men on their own today, Christmas Day 2011

My posting on December 16th about a large number of old men on their own at Christmas was based on figures from 'Friends of the Elderly' is confirmed by a poll for 'The Centre for Social Justice'. This also found that 250,000 old people are on their own today and working on the basis that old women outnumber old men my conservative guesstimate for the men is 100,000.


So, if we take a hypothetical old man called 'Joe' and ask why he is alone this Christmas we find that :

* like 2 out of 5 men, Joe is separated from his wife who remarried and his children have to divide their time between him and their mother and possibly her husband's family, so they might be stretched 3 ways at Christmas.

* Joe's ‘silver separation’ from his wife in 2009, constituted 2 of the 11,500
over-60s were granted a divorce in that year.



* doesn't get much consolation from the Centre's Executive Director, Gavin Poole,who said: "Today’s findings are heart-wrenching. We know about the tragic impact of family breakdown on the youngest members of our society but now we’re seeing the consequences for older people. For so many to spend Christmas Day alone while their family celebrates elsewhere is a modern tragedy."

* along with half of those polled cited the television as his main form of company.

Britain is no country for old lonely men at Christmas

Some 500,000 old people, many of them old men, are facing the prospect of spending this Christmas alone.

A survey by the Charity,'Friends of the Elderly', has revealed that a quarter of people would not be inviting older relatives or local residents to their Christmas 'dos' and more people are keen to help animals than old people.

The survey also found that 44% of people said they simply 'did not have the time' to visit an older person, while others said they 'could not be bothered' to visit or felt older people 'already received enough visits'.

The survey found that for the majority of people Christmas is 'about spending time with family and friends', while a tenth highlighted the 'religious aspect' with the same number saying it is 'about shopping'.

Richard Furze, the Charity's Chief Executive, said:

" The effects of isolation on older people, including loneliness, depression, feelings of low self-worth, poor health and diet, can be devastating, with isolated individuals being less likely to obtain the services they need or seek help. We understand that people are incredibly busy today, and especially at Christmas, but we urge people to get more involved with the older people around them - and not just at Christmas."

Sadly, Richard, I fear that Bitain in future will have more and more old men on their own at Christmas and pictures like this will be become less and less common.