ABSTRACT
A number of recent reports have emphasized that ‘the elderly’ are far from a homogeneous group. Taylor :and Ford (1983), for example, examined age, sex, and social-class differences in a sample of elderly people in Aberdeen, finding substantial inequalities between subgroups in their income, social support, health, and psychological functioning. Victor and Evandrou (1986) studied social-class differences using a nationally representative sample from the General Household Survey (GHS) and concluded that the income and health of old people are strongly related to their past employment experience. This chapter explores the relationship between age and several measures of inequality, drawing for our data on a nationally representative sample of elderly people from the GHS. We focus on the significance of ‘stage’ in life course in accounting for inequality amongst the elderly, and use the analysis to reflect on the likely consequences of current pension and health policies.
