Sunday 7 January 2018

What could the latest life expectancy projections mean for the State Pension Age?

a post by David Finch published in the Resolution Foundation blog

At the end of last week [probably 1 December 2017], the ONS published the latest future projections showing its best estimate of how long we can expect to live. We don’t automatically associate our living standards with factors like health or how many years of life we may have. But just like income, life expectancy is an important indicator of our standard of living. As our recent report found, these projections have big implications for people’s living standards in later life.

In perhaps a growing, and worrying, theme for prosperity-linked metrics, expected improvements in life expectancy have been revised down. As the chart below shows, a person born today can now expect to live for about a year and a half less than previously thought. That may not seem significant over a lifespan totalling 90 years, but it represents a lost decade of improvement, with expectations now back to where they were under 2006-based projections. It is not just income that is little improved since the financial crisis.

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There is talk of “live long and prosper” but I would prefer to live a shorter time if the longer means it will be endured in poverty.



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