FUNNY how words change their meaning. Pensioner used to be a term that carried a certain ring. Those of pensionable age were automatically accorded respect and had a call on everyone’s better nature, to make sure they were well looked after. It was a hard-earned label, and brought status of a sort. As a child, I remember the air of pride when someone said they were an old-age pensioner. They usually looked it, too, with their walking sticks, wrinkles and shabby shoes.

And now? To judge by the way they recoil, 60 and 70-somethings would rather be sworn at than addressed by the P word. As baby boomers reach this marker, they seem keener to go on extreme adventure holidays and embark on second or third marriages than go gentle into that season of decline. According to the Resolution Foundation, these so-called retirees are better off than working families, by £20 a week. Fifteen years ago, in contrast, households dependent on a pension were £70 worse off. We should, however, read the small print. That bald figure does not explain that, in addition to well-off pensioners, there are those entirely dependent on a state pension and benefits. It was always thus. But now, it seems, the gulf between haves and have-nots is widening.

On one side are the golden oldies, newly retired or semi-retired, claiming good occupational pensions alongside an ongoing wage, thereby boosting their incomes. They own their own homes and have investments and good health. On the other are those in receipt of a state pension and, if they’re lucky, a work pension from a less generous age or job. They might be paying a mortgage or are in rented accommodation. They have little in the way of savings and are less likely to be fighting fit.

It is a tale of two sorts of citizens. For those born in the 20 years after the Second World War, it is the best of times; not the case for those who came earlier, whose income plummeted the day they retired. Without government support, for them it would be the worst of times.

To hear the grumbling of late, though, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the elderly are all fat cats, purring smugly while they cream off the best of the state’s benefits. The rest of us, in this sour perspective, can barely afford to buy our own homes and look forward to severely diminished circumstances when we are – finally, age 80-plus – allowed to claim our measly state and occupational pensions. Such misleading headlines about any other group in society would bring charges of prejudice or stirring hatred. As easily fanned resentment is whipped up by politicians and pundits who seek to benefit from stoking grievances, the finer points of financial reports are buried. The upshot is that pensioners are increasingly envied.

It couldn’t be more unjust. Let me take you into homes within ear-shot of the buskers on Buchanan Street, where you will find the elderly living hand to mouth. If it weren’t for triple-locked pensions, winter fuel allowances, free bus passes and the NHS they would be in a parlous situation. It’s the same across the country. For the majority, pensioner means pensioner, as it always did.

Those of us with decent prospects upon retiral should picture how we would fare if our work pensions and savings evaporated overnight and all we had to survive on was the basic state pension of £6,203.60 a year for the rest of our days. As Citizens’ Advice, Samaritans and GPs will tell you, sugar-grandaddies are vastly outnumbered by those who dread bills. Yet, thanks to a drip-feed of stories about the aged rich, a groundswell of discontent is growing. A small survey recently showed that 53 per cent of Scots think free care for the elderly should be scrapped and pensioners should pay for help at home according to their means.

I would treat this report with scepticism but, if you were to believe it, one of the basic tenets of the Scottish Government’s commitment to a fairer society is already deemed inequitable in some quarters.

As detractors of the scheme argued from the start, why should a former stockbroker receive the same free care as an employee from the council’s sanitation department?

The philanthropic underpinning of this flagship policy was one of the Scottish Labour’s finest moments. It, and subsequently the SNP, put ideals before expediency, compassion before caution. First both tried to imagine the kind of society they wanted to create and then they shaped a strategy to achieve that.

Naturally, some elderly folk are saving money which their children will inherit. But let us not forget the substantial help pensioners provide, ploughing money back into the country while they are alive. Getting children onto and up the housing ladder, paying divorce fees, school expenses and university tuition for grandchildren and great-grandchildren, are a given for those able to do so.

Charities also benefit greatly from their largesse. Meanwhile, the less affluent offer their support in other ways such as long hours of unpaid childcare and housework allowing parents to go back to work. With these and other acts, pensioners play an invisible and often unheralded but essential part in making the economy whirr and younger generations thrive. The Bank of Mum and Dad is as nothing to that of G&G – Gran and Grandad.

Even more important than this hidden dimension is the state’s responsibility to care for the most vulnerable. By their 70s and 80s, most old people have no way of increasing their income beyond a Lotto ticket. Unless their pension is sufficient to keep them warm, fed and clothed, they will suffer; and so will the budgets of public services that must handle the consequences.

As unprecedented numbers head towards retirement in the next few years, swelling the ranks of pensioners as never before, do we want our elderly to be viewed with suspicion, their every handout a source of bitterness and greed? Or would we wish to see them – and one day us – treated with kindness and dignity?

In the years ahead, as public funds come under further strain, the SNP’s promises to pensioners are inevitably going to come under pressure and attack. This, then, is a time to be bold, and promote the principles with pride. Not only must it be robust in upholding their position but it should also trumpet the news at every opportunity. Ours, after all, is the ultimate feel-good story: a country where everyone has the chance of a happy ending.