WORKERS may have to stay in their jobs until they are 70 by 2040 thanks to Britain’s OAPs living even longer, a gloomy think tank warns today.
Experts at the International Longevity Centre (ILC) say we all need to be working even longer as the Treasury’s ballooning cost of maintaining state pensions grows bigger every year.
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It comes as MPs say millions of older savers are struggling to navigate a “pensions minefield” and need more support to make better decisions.
More than 12 million older people across the UK get some form of pension help from the state after they retire, which now stands at age 66.
The current plan is to hike the state pension age to 67 by 2028, and to 68 by 2046.
But ministers launched an independent review last month into whether to go ahead with it.
The pensions bill – which already costs ministers over £100billion every year – is expected to rise even further as Brits live even longer.
Over the next 100 years the percentage of pensioners in the general population is set to rise from 17.7 per cent in 2020 to 28.5 per cent, stats from the Office for National Statistics show.
The basic rate is set to rise to £141.85 a week in April after ministers suspended the triple lock – which would have seen it soar in line with huge hikes to average wages.
Ministers were warned that the pension age will probably need to rise even faster by 2045 to meet our ageing population needs.
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The think tank suggested keeping the ballooning bill level by linking pensions increases to life expectancy, keeping more adults working for longer, or setting a limit on the number of years the state pension can be taken out for.
Prof Les Mayhew, Head of Global Research at ILC and Professor of Statistics at Bayes Business School, said: “Frankly, we’re probably going to have to increase the state pension age further between 2030 and 2045 for it to be intergenerationally fair and fiscally sustainable.
“It’s not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ and ‘by how much’.
“The impact of COVID on life expectancy needs to be factored in but the trends are fairly well set in stone.”
It comes as MPs today urge ministers to set targets for people to use the Government’s pension advice service – and help thousands of people avoid pensions scams.
More than 10million Brits are now paying into a pension thanks to auto-enrollment rules.
Poorest pensioners still face having to sell their homes to pay for social care, minister admits
