Robert Wilson, 64, feels misplaced in the city of Halifax because of the varying age number required to receive services exclusively for older adults and seniors.
“I don’t know where they want to put us,” he said. “Sometimes it’s 65, 64, 58, 55. I just don’t know.”
In Nova Scotia to qualify for Old Age Security (OAS), a person needs to be 65 years of age. For a low-income senior whose partner has deceased, the person has to be between the age of 60 or 65 to qualify for Allowance for the Survivor. While a senior needs to be 58 years of age or older to qualify for public housing.
Wilson expressed that he has financial difficulty because he does not qualify for OAS yet. He is also partially disabled after he was attacked by four men six months ago but needs to be 65 or older to qualify for a seniors bus pass. So he walks from his home in Spryfield to Downtown Halifax to save money.
“I force myself… I try to keep going but its getting worse,” said Wilson. “I have to walk back and forth and it takes me about 4 or 5 hours to walk back home.
Sometimes Wilson sleeps on benches when he can’t make it all the way home because of the pain.
Reinhold Endres, 70, on the other hand doesn’t think being older should be used as a crutch to get assistance from the province.
“People should just carry on with their life as best as they can,” he said. “I don’t see any particular point in having an age barrier where the government should suddenly step in to help people and assist people or to do special things for people.”
Nova Scotia has the highest proportion of seniors in the country with 1,000 people turning 65 every month. The Nova Scotia Department of Seniors has an estimated budget of $149,600 for program expenses and services this year.
Tom Bell, 73, expressed that seniors may feel frustrated because of the rapid changes in their environment and the attitude of the younger generation.
“There’s the question about whether the heath care system and nursing care system will be able to take care of the [aging] population without being too much of a burden on young people,” he said. “The way it’s presented, it tends to almost be a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Endres pointed out that being a senior citizen is different compared to 30 years ago. He says expectations aren’t the same anymore.
“Today people live so much longer. People do so much more; they’re so much more gregarious, so much more open-minded. They’re active, they engage which wasn’t always the case.”
Bell says he would like to see the approach towards the aging population change.
“I’d like to hear more about the positive actions that they’re taking to assure that there would be a good quality of life that integrates the older population and the younger population so we can move forward together.”