A report out today suggests the youngsters of today will be paying much more on products such as life insurance and home insurance in the years to come as they live much longer lives.
The study by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was based around figures provided by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and suggests that today’s youngsters will not only live longer but will have to work longer and pay more for their pensions if the fabric of UK society is to remain the same.
According to the study, 1 in 3 girls born in the UK this year will live to reach their one hundredth birthday, 1 in 4 boys will do exactly the same. The DWP say that this means there be at least half a million people in the UK over 100 by the year 2066. The figures suggest a child born in 2011 is 8 times more likely to live to 100 than a child born in 1930 and it doesn’t stop there. The report says a twenty year old today has double the chance of living to be 100 than their generation older parents. It is a remarkable figure and one that explains the DWP’s urgency to sort out pensions and retirement age issues quickly.
This year has already seen industrial action by workers in the public sector who are now being asked to pay a lot more into their pensions and at the same be prepared to work longer. It has come as a bitter blow to some, especially those in their fifties and near retirement age. Women in particular have been hit hard. Teachers, Nurses and Civil Servants expecting to retire at 55 on full pensions are now looking at retiring at 66. It has happened in a few short years and has caught many out. Not only are they being asked to pay more and work longer before they get a pension, but their present jobs are in danger and the prospects of finding something similar negligible.
Tomorrows Nurses and Teachers may well be looking at a 60 year working life and still a long and healthy retirement. It is a strange fact that as the human race manages to elongate its life expectancy to such high levels the material things we produce have a smaller and smaller life expectancy all the time. How many homeowners insurance and motor insurance policies will the little girl in her cot today take out before her life has run its course?
