Scotland is experiencing significant demographic change. By 2045, one in four Scots will be over the age of 65. This shift demands a fundamental rethink of how we plan, deliver, and finance public services. Many bodies not least the Scottish Fiscal Commission alongside the Accounts Commission have argued that such change is urgent and immediate.
Yet despite their increasing numbers and contributions, older people are often marginalised in fiscal policy debates. Or at worst are the object of casual stereotype and victimisation.
National and local government budgets are drafted and analysed with limited attention to how public spending affects the diverse lives of older people – especially those experiencing poverty, disability, rural isolation, or multiple disadvantages. Or if they are considered it’s solely through a health or social care lens and priority.
While organisations such as Age Scotland and Age UK campaign for the rights of older people, there is currently no independent group in Scotland, or the wider UK tasked specifically with analysing the impact of public budgets on older people in the way the Women’s Budget Group (WBG) does for gender.
In this slightly extended thought piece, I am presenting one argument, namely that the establishment of an Older Persons Budget Group (OPBG) would fill a glaring gap – providing independent, evidence-based analysis and promoting age-inclusive policy development across all levels of government.
A Scotland (and UK) where public budgets and spending decisions reflect the rights, needs, and contributions of older people – ensuring equity, dignity, and inclusion for all in later life should surely be the aim of any or all political and civic leadership.
I started this thought from the premise that Scotland’s governments were not spending enough on our older citizens given their demographic weight. But in truth that’s not as simple argument to make as it might appear.
On the one hand the Scottish Government and local authorities commit significant sums to older Scots. Amongst other areas of spend we have Free Personal Care for older adults alone which costs around £900 million per annum. Local authority adult social work and care budgets rose from £4.3 billion in 2023-24, and £1.7 billion was specifically allocated for social care and integration in the 2023-24 budget. This integration involves 31 health and social care partnerships managing almost £9 billion of health and social care resources, according to Health and Social Care Scotland. Recent announcements on Winter Fuel payments to pensioners account for £100–300 million, targeted at over one million older Scots.
These figures sit within a total Scottish Budget of roughly £59.7 billion for 2024-25. On the face of it, then, older people represent large recipients.
But it’s not quite as simple or perhaps as positive. Currently, adults aged 50+ make up about 40% of Scotland’s population, with those 65+ being around 22%. If spending mirrors population share, older age groups would attract 22–40% of budget allocations. But the reality is more complex. Free personal care and concessionary travel skew toward older cohorts. Health and social care combined outstrip many other areas.
However, other demographic groups also benefit: children’s services, education, rural subsidies, universal benefits. On a strict per capita basis, older people receive robust support – but not overwhelmingly so.
So are older Scots being discriminated against in terms of fiscal spend?
Discrimination implies unfair under-provision, the absence of appropriate support, or a lack of inclusion. On pure expenditure, older Scots are not neglected. Yet any regular reader of my blogs will know how frequently I bemoan the reality that age-based barriers persist in healthcare treatment, social inclusion, and service access. That many older people – especially older women – face loneliness, digital exclusion, and precarious housing. That even at policy levels such as the Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statements which promise assessment of impacts on protected characteristics – often age and in particular older age are rarely singled out
Thus, while older people benefit from universal schemes, equality of outcome and lived experience may still fall short.
The House of Commons reported that the Public Sector Equality Duty often fails older people, and protections are weak. Ageism in services is still widespread: and it stated that in the NHS older patients report lack of dignity, de-prioritisation, and negative stereotyping.
This isn’t overt financial discrimination but a systemic, subtle form of injustice, rooted not in budgets per se, but in how budgets are shaped and lived.
Spending on older Scots is not negligible – it is significant, even generous. But generosity without insight risks injustice. Older people are not a homogenous mass of pensions and care. They are individuals- diverse, local, living incomplete lives.
Similar arguments have been in the past made about women and these led to the formation of Women’s Budget Groups across the UK.
The Scottish Women’s Budget Group (SWBG), echoing the UK-wide WBG, has long scrutinised the gendered effects of budget decisions, embedding gender-responsive and care-led analysis into fiscal debate.
Their approach has both been to undertake impact-focused scrutiny: asking how spending/policy affects different genders. They have presented a robust evidence base which has sought to link budget lines with outcomes not least on care, justice and equality. And they have done all those with consistent advocacy both in parliamentary terms and in the media.
I would contend that an Older Persons Budget Group (OPBG) could usefully apply this model.
There could be many benefits such as a re-elevation of social care, health, social isolation, housing – all key ‘aged’ lenses for budgeting. Just as the WBG surfaces gender gaps, an OPBG could uncover how budget lines – like transport, digital access, social care – tangibly affect different older-age cohorts.
It would help to ensure that age becomes an explicit equality consideration in impact assessments. And importantly it would promote targeted support for older subgroups such as unpaid carers, the very old and the digitally excluded.
It would also act to accelerate inclusion into existing duties. Scotland’s advancing Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) would benefit from formal mechanisms to assess how policies affect older populations – much in the way WBG urged for gender.
An Older Persons Budget Group (OPBG), inspired by the Women’s Budget Group (WBG), could be a transformative body in Scotland – or across the UK – providing independent, evidence-based fiscal analysis to assess how public spending decisions affect older people. Here’s how such a group might operate, structure itself, and create impact, drawing from proven models and the specific needs of ageing populations.
The practical formation and focus of an OPBG would be important.
I would suggest it needs to be an independent, and non-partisan organisation perhaps hosted by a civil society or academic institution (e.g. linked to universities, Age Scotland, or a foundation). With open membership representing the breadth of age and interests from older age advocates, gerontologists, care providers, industrial and employment interests, the creative sector etc, the OPBG would require a mix of funding sources to ensure independence and sustainability.
I’m imagining a scenario I come across all too frequently for such an OPBG.
Let’s say the Scottish Government proposes a £2bn increase in health spending but flattens social care funding. An OPBG could show that older people will benefit little from hospital-focused funding if care-at-home support declines and becomes unsustainable. It could highlight rural inequalities – where older people might be cut off from services due to reduced transport spending. It could publish a budget equity audit, noting that older women carers are disproportionately affected. And in turn it could advocate for reallocation: e.g. £100m redirected to community care and tech access for isolated pensioners.
The measure of a mature democracy is not in how loudly it applauds the aged, but in how honestly it budgets for their dignity. If we can gender our budgets, why can’t we age them too? An OPBG would not simply count pennies; it would count people – in their wisdom, their contribution, and their human worth.
So, let’s start the desire for a more equitable budgetary process which considers age as essential. And in words I have often quoted let us remember Joe Biden when he said: “Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”
Donald Macaskill
Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash
Last Updated on 26th July 2025 by donald.macaskill
