Life expectancy has increased significantly in the UK, where one in four children living now will get to celebrate their centenary, shows figures published last week in the press in Albion. The question is: how good of a life would be at one hundred years?
Out of 12.4 million children aged under 16 years, 3.3 million (27%) will live one hundred years, say the statistics quoted by the Daily Mail. According to figures supplied by the Department for Work and Pensions, when it comes to all age groups, the chance to reach one hundred years is lower. Nearly 900,000 potential centenarians are now pensioners aged over 65 years.
Increased life expectancy seams to bring complications. Government experts say that children who may live 100 years will not get the government pension until they will turn “70 years or more”. For now, the retirement age will increase to 66 years for both men and women by 2020 and the government has warned that it will continue to go up.
One of the proposals to maintain the current pension system is that the retirement age to rise further, following life expectancy going up.
“If you want to retire young, start saving”
Laith Khalaf, pensions analyst and financial adviser at Hargreaves Lansdowne, finds that the message is simple: if you want to retire young, start saving.
“To live to an old age is a blessing, if you can afford it, but it is a curse if you can not. Those who will not have enough savings will come to the mercy of the government pension, which will be adjusted accordingly”, said Khalaf.
Khalaf raises the question of millions of people who will live 100 years, but will have a reduced quality of life due to health problems and little money. This scenario is based on the governmental plans to reform the pension system.
“Millions of people will live a third of their lives as retirees. That’s why we have to reform the pension system. We want to make it fair and sustainable for future generations”, said the British minister for pensions, Steve Webb.