Young people to be hit hardest by UK’s ageing society, report suggests
Young people will be hardest hit by the failure of successive governments to focus on the financial and social challenges caused by an aging population, according to a House of Lords report.
They need to plan and prepare to work longer and save more from a much earlier age, the economic affairs committee said.
The report also said the crisis in adult social care “remains a scandal” that needs to be addressed urgently.
Committee chairman Lord Wood of Anfield told the BBC it was a struggle to find out “where in government there is a focus on aging and the transformational impacts it will have on people”.
“Aging is something we’re just watching happen,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, adding: “We know the way forward is adaptation.”
The policies used by governments to address the effects of falling fertility and rising life expectancy in the UK (for example, raising the retirement age or increasing immigration) alone are not sufficient solutions, the report said.
The committee said it was “important” to get more people in their 50s and 60s to stay at home or return to work and that the government should prioritize incentives to do this.
It was also stated that the aging population will need more care workers, leaving fewer workers for other parts of the economy.
Stating that there is “widespread ignorance” about how much retirement will cost, the report said the government should consider an education campaign and also find out whether the UK’s financial services sector is equipped to serve an aging population.
Lord Wood said the government and the financial services sector “need to find more innovative ways to get young people thinking about lives that they frankly wouldn’t dream of now – when they’re in their eighties and early nineties.”
“At a time when we know young people are doing less financial planning, there is a long time for them to plan financially,” he added.
“Raising the state pension age, which saves the state money but increases pensioners’ poverty because many people stop working in their sixties, is misleading.
“To successfully meet this challenge, the financial management approach of today’s and tomorrow’s young people will need to change.”
