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A quarter of 18-30 year olds think sex after 60 is wrong, disgusting or only for ‘dirty old men’, according to our new research out today. However, a massive 44% of 18-30 year olds would be happy to date someone over 60 if the person in question was “hot” or if they fell in love with them.

We commissioned the study of 2,000 18-30 year olds as part of our mission to reframe the value of older age. We are on the hunt for like-minded brands to join us on a quest to challenge attitudes to the over 60s.

According to the study, one in ten 18-30 year olds think that people over 60 shouldn’t be dating or looking for new relationships, citing that they should “have separate beds” or “focus on being grandparents”. A further 15% of people thought that any dating past 60 would only be acceptable if it was for purely platonic purposes.

We also canvassed older people to find out if there might be a demand for a dating website for people in their 80s and 90s. A whopping 90% of people gave the idea the thumbs up in the survey, including Esme, aged 81, who met married her second husband in her 70s and is keen for other people in their 80s to find love again. “I have never looked back,” she explains. “Don’t be shy and you’ll find your kids and relatives accept your new partner!” 

Gorgeous grannies over 60 may have even more dating opportunities as 17% of men aged 18-30 would date someone over 60 if she was “hot”, compared to just 7% of women. But both sexes were equally prepared to be swept away by romance, with 36% of women and 29% of men being prepared to date someone over 60 if they fell in love with them.

Dot Smith, aged 72, is particularly excited by the prospect of finding a younger boyfriend. “Life doesn’t stop just because you get older,” she explains. “I enjoy meeting new people and wouldn’t care how old someone was if I liked them. Why shouldn’t someone in their twenties find me attractive? It just shows they have excellent taste!”

With 42% of people over 65 being separated, divorced, widowed or never married – and with STD rates in the over 55s rising at a rapid rate – we at Forster AGEncy believe there is a need for a new attitude to sex and the sixties. 

The time has come to challenge perceptions of older people. Today’s 65 year olds were the original teenagers and grew up during the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s. As people like Helen Mirren, Mick Jagger and Iggy Pop enjoy their 60s, it’s time to recognise the true worth of an age group that has traditionally been sidelined or ignored by marketers and much of society.

47% of 18-30 year olds hope that they will still be enjoying physical relationships once they pass 60.

People living in East Anglia are the most optimistic that their sex lives will continue into their sixties, with 58% intending to remain sexually active, compared to just 38% of Londoners. People living in Northern Ireland and Scotland were most against sex over 60, with more than one in ten people saying that your sex life should stop on your 60th birthday. Meanwhile, 52% of Londoners would happily date someone over 60 if they were attractive or they fell in love with them, compared to just 35% of people in the North East.

Given the significant economic power of people over 60, there are extensive commercial benefits to be gained from developing products, services and appropriate communications for this key audience.

Check out today's Mirror or The Sun to see what they think of our survey.

"Spending cuts threaten to create conflict between generations as the middle-aged are forced to bear the cost of caring for children and the elderly, according to social policy experts. A report from United for All Ages, a new social enterprise, expressed concern that children’s centres could be closed and care services for the elderly cut, leaving families facing a “care crunch”. It said “generational tensions” were a significant risk as a result of the spending cuts and urged councils to create facilities where all generations could mix."

So reported the Daily Telegraph when we published a new policy paper recently. It’s still early days but the spending cuts are already pitching different age groups against each other in the battle to protect frontline services.

As many of the public services we take for granted come under threat, it is time for a re-evaluation of how we make the best use of resources for all ages.

Closing one-third of children’s centres in the next four years is not acceptable; instead we need new ways to make those centres sustainable. Rationing care so that most older people can’t get the help they need is not acceptable; we need a fairer way to pay for care and to explore how to support family carers better. Local communities are battling with many similar dilemmas.

There are cross-generational solutions to these issues which will benefit all ages and our whole society as part of a new contract between the generations. Our paper, United or divided?, proposes new ways of working that share sites, caring and interests across all ages.

For example, centres for all ages – bringing younger and older people together on one site – make sense both socially and economically. They would help build stronger communities and would make much better use of existing resources in local communities.

Promoting intergenerational conflict, particularly when most of us are feeling the pinch, is not the answer to tackling the profound problems and inequalities in Britain today. We are much stronger as a society and in our communities if we are united, not divided.

The defining factors in 2011 that affect all generations are insecurity and growing polarisation. Insecurity affects people of all ages; so do the growing pressures on time and family finances and the lack of good childcare and eldercare; our whole society is straining with the 24/7 pace of life, new technology and other pressures on family life. Polarisation is about both wealth and experience – money matters, but loneliness and isolation also diminish many lives.

Our new report, United or Divided?, summarises some of the key evidence facing every generation in Britain today; it highlights key characteristics of every generation and the common threads that bind all generations; and it recommends ways in which Britain can become a society that values and supports people of all ages to create a stronger country.

Stephen Burke is director of the social enterprise, United for All Ages.  For details about United and the paper, United or divided?, please visit www.unitedforallages.com This article first appeared on the International Longevity Centre website.

"The thing about That Bit Of Help is that, in a world where we are faced with complex policy statements, it presents a case that is simplicity itself, and as much as possible the aim now should be to move on to how the spreading of the practice might be achieved. It is no panacea but in the case of That Bit Of Help, it was never meant to be. It is mainly as cheaply based, community minded, civilised approach to helping people's wellbeing as there could be. For older people’s lives it is for good times as well as bad, and for services it is relevant in bad times as well as good."

Stan Davison, Chair of the JRF Older People’s Steering Group

We get caught up in the evidence-based, cost-effectiveness, outcome-defined, prevention discussion and lose sight of the basic message.

The 'outcome' that older people want is to have a life – their life.

JRF's project on 'That Bit Of Help' showed that if older people received support with simple tasks – gardening, laundry, housework, etc – they would be able to maintain their independence as well as a good quality of life, health and well-being.

Today's report by the Centre for Policy on Ageing looks at the imaginative, affordable and effective ways of supporting older people during a time of austerity and a growing population of older people.

We are not talking about huge aspirations but about what should be reasonable in any civilised society at this stage of the twenty-first century. There is an overwhelming body of evidence to show that people are more likely to retain all aspects of health (physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual) when there is mutuality, good human contact and support.

Likewise when these are withdrawn, it should not surprise that decline is often quite rapid with a consequential demand on 'illness' services. This is basic health promotion and could be judged on these merits alone.

Older people in the JRF Older People’s Steering Group rejected stereotypes . They said that growing older was about balancing gains and losses – and we needed to be honest about these. Ultimately it is about a civilised approach to growing older, not a luxury but about basic freedoms. Many of the approaches identified in today’s report, and in our original ‘Older People’s Inquiry into That Bit of Help’ are widely used by older people across the UK – in rural and urban localities – for quite modest amounts of money.

As Stan says, now’s the time to use our imaginations.

This article was first published on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) website