Daily Mail – by ADAM URENGovernment ministers have been urged to tread carefully before upping retirement ages for workers, as life expectancy predictions may be overly-optimistic.
The age at which people can claim their state pension will rise to 69 by the mid-2040s under the current government’s proposals in response to data that project life expectancies will have risen to 100 by 2062.
But retirement specialist Partnership and the International Longevity Institute UK said at a House of Lords panel discussion on Wednesday that previous predictions about how long pensioners would live in retirement are actually now being revised down.
In 2009, the Office for National Statistics projected that men and women aged 65 in 2008 could expect to live another 19 and 21.3 years respectively.
But in last year’s figures, the ONS said 65-year-old men and women in 2012 could expect to live 18.3 and 20.6 years respectively.
The call also follows research by Partnerships longevity director Richard Willets in 2012, claiming that there are currently 30,000 fewer people in their 90s in the UK than census projections from previous decades suggested there would be.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Willets said: ‘While we naturally want to be optimistic about life expectancy, it is vital that the statistics that are used to determine public spending, state pension age and retirement income are as accurate as projections can be.
‘Analysis of the 2011 Census and the ONS population projections suggest that this may not be the case and that we need to seriously consider how we collect and use this data.’
In his Autumn Statement, George Osborne announced that state pension ages would rise more quickly than previously thought, to 68 in the 2030s and 69 in the 2040s, with rises to 66 and 67 already scheduled for the 2020s.
Current life expectancies in the UK are 82.7 for girls and 79 for boys born last year, but this is expected to rise significantly over the coming decades.
An ONS release last autumn estimated that a third of babies born in 2013 would live to be 100, while the life expectancy for women would reach 100 for girls born in 2062.
But with its analysis showing that projections are constantly being altered, ILC-UK and Partnership says its all the more important that any changes to long-term retirement policy need to be done with a thorough understanding of longevity.
Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-2574819/Are-life-expectancies-high-warrant-state-pension-rise.html#ixzz2vHLnTsBh
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
And also it is not only how old you are, your lifespan, but how healthy you are at any given age. There are plenty of strong and healthy people who are capable of supporting themselves financially and who might want to do so, and there are also plenty of sick and weak people in their mid-60s who do not have the stamina to continue supporting themselves. And also…. age discrimination in hiring…. hmmm…. is that supposed to end, too? (yes, I know I’m addressing this on one level; on another level yes, I agree funny farmer it IS a scam)
I always believed God gave us about 100 years. I got non filter / pipe smokers in my family that do 99 98 97 right..
But recent years with all the food air water and EMI/RFI, I’m not so sure.
Phatt Chemtrail over the house this morning. Busy Busy in California.