Citizenship, Exclusion and Older People

Abstract

Debates about the meaning of citizenship have grown since the election of the first New Labour government. These debates have tended to focus on the government's assertion of the central role of work in defining the status of citizen, a stance which has increasingly been criticised for devaluing unpaid work such as caring or volunteering. However, the position of those beyond labour market age – older people – has rarely been examined in relation to how citizenship might be defined. At the same time, the concept of social exclusion, heavily utilised by New Labour to characterise those at the margins of society, has at best an ambiguous relevance to older people. This article, based on an exploration of the social, financial and other impacts of additional benefit income for older people, examines how these two concepts might be understood in relation to the position of older people and sketches out what some of the defining characteristics of citizenship might be for them.