I had an interesting conversation today, about the future of many services in the UK. Looking around; so many “soft” services rely on volunteers. Lunches for pensioners, drivers taking people to appointments, hospital visitors - and that’s without even considering all the various social clubs, or church-related outreach. Many of the current volunteers are growing older; coming up behind them is - nobody. The older generation retired at 60 or 65. That no longer happens; in the case of women that’s 6-7 years of potential volunteer activity gone. The current older generation are maybe the ones who cover the era when we moved from women who didn’t work, to working mothers. Nowadays, very few families can survive on one income. That has removed a further tranche of potential volunteers. My friend commented that her children were nearly all adults, she is approaching her 50s and returning to full-time rather than part-time work. A couple of generations ago she would have been looking to volunteer. That’s 17 years of volunteering lost to communities.
I think it’s a worrying trend, one which will further isolate the ill, the elderly, those struggling to make ends meet. Things previously undertaken as voluntary roles will either cease, or will become chargeable services, which will then disappear because nobody can afford them. We will be a poorer and less friendly society as a result.