Like most developed countries across the world, the UK’s population is tipping rapidly into old age. By 2042, 24 per cent of people living in the UK will be aged 65 or older, up from 18 per cent in 2016.

The all important ratio between working people and pensioners is shifting, and as a result, the weight of the financial burden is growing. Earlier this week, centre-right think tank The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), chaired by former secretary of state for work and pensions and Conservative party MP Iain Duncan Smith, recommended raising the retirement age more rapidly than is currently planned – up to 75 in the next 15 years.

At present, the retirement age is on course to reach 67 by 2028, and 68 between 2044 and 2046 (although in 2017 the government announced plans to accelerate it to 68 between 2037 and 2039). By contrast, the CSJ report advocates increasing the age for receiving state pension to 70 by 2028 and 75 by 2035. But is simply pushing the retirement age up indefinitely the best answer to an ageing population? “If life expectancy continues to improve, then we should expect it to continually increase,” says David Blake, director of the Pensions Institute, a research centre.

To preserve intergenerational fairness, this age should shift as life expectancy goes up, he argues. But while seemingly intuitive, the idea of continually nudging up the retirement age poses a number of issues – chief among them that life expectancy in the UK has stalled since 2011. As of 2018, it was only increasing by 1.2 weeks per year, making any expected gains over the next ten to 15 years negligible if this trend persists.

It’s government policy that each person should work for roughly two thirds of their adult lives, and enjoy retirement for up to one third. Given that the current average UK life expectancy is 80.96 years, postponing the retirement age to 75 would mean the average UK citizen experiencing a mere six years of retirement before death. This is a radical curtailment from the current amount of time enjoyed, which is the best part of 15 years.

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