Retired senior citizens in Austria
The fundamental principle thus to be achieved is “active aging” aimed at optimizing health, safety and participation in order to promote aging citizens’ quality of life. Studies show that social participation and engaging in voluntary and charitable work are closely linked with health and wellbeing. Doing voluntary work, and quite generally being involved in activities that are considered useful and meaningful, enables senior citizens to gain a greater sense of their own capabilities and raises their visibility thus earning them respect and appreciation.
The Federal Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection led by Federal Minister Rudolf Hundstorfer.
2015 saw the start of the evaluation of the Federal Plan for Senior Citizens, which had been drawn up with considerable contributions of Austrian senior citizen organizations and adopted by the federal government and parliament in 2012. All major stakeholders were invited to report on implementation, and these reports also form the basis of the Austrian National Report on the implementation of MIPAA/RIS: the invitation was extended to all federal ministries, the senior citizen representatives of the Laender, the Austrian Association of Municipalities, the Austrian Association of Cities and Towns as well as all Austrian senior citizen organizations.
Was adopted by the federal government and parliament in 2012 and is based on the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA) and the UNECE Regional Implementation Strategy of Berlin 2002 (RIS). The 14 fields of action of the Federal Plan for Senior Citizens are in line with the four policy goals of the 2012 Vienna Ministerial Declaration; they are pillars of equal significance of Austrian aging policy.
Labour market policy measures are inseparably linked with mainstreaming ageing and non-discrimination on grounds of age; at the same time, they are the best safeguards for maintaining social protection with income-centred financing. Measures to support aging in place also serve to improve quality of life, independence and dignity as well as a positive attitude toward aging. Lifelong learning is the best foundation for participation and social inclusion.
Although today’s senior generation’s readiness to commit themselves at community level is currently high, their concrete level of involvement and participation is, however, clearly lower – and particularly so in the field of political participation. It may, however, be assumed that with the emergence of the “new older generation”, characterized by a better state of health, greater physical fitness and higher average level of education, a considerable potential for greater mobilization will emerge. It is also becoming evident in many other areas that education and the ability to use information in a targeted manner shall come to play a key role in the future.
Equal rights and participation of older persons in political, societal, cultural and economic life will continue to be an essential, central objective of Austrian social policy and a priority. Older persons should be given the space and opportunities which corresponds to the diversity of their lives and enables them to take part in the knowledge-based society. Equal access of older persons to diverse and high-quality learning is a fundamental requirement for participation. In keeping with the Austrian Federal Plan for Senior Citizens and the Austrian Strategy for Lifelong Learning 2020, the Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection is seeking to achieve the goal “Enrichment of the quality of life via education in the post-employment phase”, by taking appropriate measures to increase participation in continuing education, to assure the quality of programmes, create counseling facilities for the post-employment phase and a low-threshold, close to-home educational infrastructure to en
Any country can follow the guide in order to find similar problems experienced by elder people and address them accordingly. However, an individual approach to each region where it was applied, needs to be provided, in order to allocate the project resources in the most efficient way based on the local cultural and economic characteristics.
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