In Britain, when someone gets old they often go to live in a home with other old people where there are nurses to look after them. Sometimes the government has to pay for this care. Who should be responsible for our old people?
Many old people in Britain, after a lifetime of hard work and the toil of bringing up children, are put into homes for the elderly by their families. There, they are looked after by professional nurses, and this is sometimes at the expense of the government. However, this situation has raised controversy about whether we extend to our elders the care and respect they deserve.
The critics of this system say that it is the duty of the family to look after its senior members in the years when they are no longer able to work. They point out that in retirement homes old people tend to feel useless and unwanted by their family members, who seldom come to see them. In addition, there is evidence that younger people benefit from the experience and wisdom of older people who live with them on a daily basis.
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On the other had, those who support the system say that retired parents can be a burden to young families. Not only is it expensive to support old people who have little or no income, but the fact that old people are often ill and need a great deal of looking after can be too much for their busy children.
In my opinion, neither side is completely right. Old people in good health and with enough finances to support themselves can be a great help to their children. For instance, they can look after their grandchildren while children are out at work. On the other had, sick and penniless old people are better off being looked after in retirement homes at government expense.
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In the modern world, it has become a trend these days to live in a retirement community or a nursing home when someone gets old where they are looked after by nurses and other physicians all the time. Usually, the government or ministry funds these care homes and I strongly believe that this is how it should be. I can support my belief with myriad of reasons discussed below.
To commence with, people in Britain pay a significant amount of taxes to government while they are working. Even their retirement age is also 66 as compared to other countries where its 55 or 58, which makes people over there work for a very long part of their life before they can get pensions and benefits from the government. So, I firmly believe that government should pay for its citizens when they are no longer able to earn efficiently and take proper care of themselves.
Furthermore, these nursing homes charge approximately two thousand pounds and if family will have to pay for this care, they will start treating their elderly as a burden on themselves. As a result of which they can be insulted, bullied and can even become a victim of mental and emotional abuse by their own family.
On top of it, in nations like Britain, people just have hand to mouth income because of the cut throat competition and high taxes. So this makes no sense to make the families pay for elderly care in Britain.
To sum it up, I believe that government should be the one paying for this, as British people pay taxes for their whole life to get these benefits when they cannot work anymore.