What incentives would the government need to think about to encourage those of retirement age to remain in employment, or to take up new challenges ?

History has taught us that countries with diminishing working age populations will suffer economically.(Of cause you could change the economic model but that is another discussion).

Yes Neil,we should value the older populatiion as they will increasingly contribute to our society but that will not solve the problem

Will we have to work until age 90 years? Well one could say we should have the opportunity to do so if the individual wants to.

Does the frail or able extend from cradle to grave? No one is entirely sure, but as the proportion of frail adults increases with age then that would suggest not. No one has been able to define those who will become frail in the future yet prospectively, but the concept is still under scientific debate and the research at an early stage.

Work on valuing older people. This response has a lot of merits. There is little doubt that communities and relationships of the type suggested are essential to maintaining well-being in older adults. This in turn should not only lead to better life as we age, but be less consuming of resources.

One point it indicates is the idea of using chronological age as a surrogate for limitations and resource use. This is a common association and we need to reflect on a number of points.

We have to consider extension in lifespan as a global change. Thus this is a question for the global community. This will have impacts on adults of any country in the world.

Another feature of ageing is that the increase in lifespan has increased more in the last few decades than ever before. One question no one has an answer to is whether this will translate into an increase in healthy, independent years lived or we will simple see a longer period disability.

Ageing research has identified that older adults are a diverse group and cannot be easily put into one group. We can see a spectrum from the frail to the extremely able. Thus one interesting notion is to find what makes some older adults defy the stereotypical picture of aged.

Some would offer another view, which would classify humans as they age in terms of their ‘biological’ rather than ‘chronological’ age. Thus use abilities rather than assumed limitations as a more useful approach.

Perhaps the better view of the future would be to consider all adults in terms of their abilities rather than age. Thus we can consider people of any age supporting those with needs of any age.

Many older adults currently provide such support for younger ones, such as grandparents caring for their children’s children.