I WOULD like to welcome the report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation about attitudes to old age ("Report challenges stereotype of 'grumpy' elderly", October 11).

I too am increasingly concerned at the way older people's issues are talked about. The ageing population in this country is often described as "a looming crisis" with serious implications for public spending. This is reported as a threat to local authorities with increased demand on their services.

Older people are portrayed as a burden and assumed to be frail and in need of care in a home. This leads to a perception that older people have never contributed to society through taxation and are undeserving.

This way of talking about older people delimits discussion of more positive images, such as the fact that older people are living longer and are in better heath - something to be celebrated not denigrated - or the contribution older people make to society by working in the voluntary sector.

Older people have a wealth of experience to share.

This type of language also has practical implications for the way social policy is agreed and implemented as older people are perceived as a "demographic timebomb", a burden to be paid for by those in work.

Such language is ageist and has to be challenged.

Coun Ruth Potter,

Older People's Champion,

City of York Council,

Chaucer Street,

York.

Updated: 10:23 Wednesday, October 13, 2004