ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the policy challenges facing the state in legal response to older family members. For too many older people, old age is marked by disadvantage, poverty and exclusion. It is commonly assumed that old age is associated with poverty. In most developed countries and in Latin America older people are generally not significantly poorer than the general population. By contrast, in most of sub-Saharan Africa, older people are significantly less well off than the general population. Most developed countries have well-established financial state support for older people through the provision of welfare payments. These are often combined with state-support pension schemes into which a person can choose to contribute and through a system of other benefits targeted at particular needs for older people, such as fuel allowances and subsided transport.
