The International Longevity Centre (ILC), the UK’s leading authority on longevity is calling for a review of the law around next of kin, in light of the changing demographics in the UK.

Christmas is an especially difficult time for those who have little or no family support, worsening the isolation that they may feel throughout the year. Those who are ageing without children, for whatever reason, often lack the physical, mental and emotional support that close family provides. Yet those ageing without children report that the assumption of statutory services is often that the family is the default support network for those in need of help.

ILC’s recent route map for long lives “One Hundred Not Out” highlighted the increase in those ageing without children and the increasing move away from the “2.4 children” concept of families.

• The number of people over 65 who don’t have adult children is set to rise to 2 million by 2030.
• The average age of parents has been steadily increasing; it was 30.9 for mothers and 33.7 for fathers in 2021 (compared to 26.4 and 29.5 in 1975).
• More people are living in openly LGBTQ+ relationships, forming family structures around them. In England, almost six times more same-sex couples were living together in 2021 than in 2001.

David Sinclair, ILC’s Chief Executive said,

“By 2030 around one in seven of us will be ageing without children and many more of us will be spending future Christmases alone or without relatives. Legal definitions and the way we deliver care and support haven’t kept up with the changing nature of families and the emerging demographics of our society.”

“Even the phrase “next of kin” is looking increasingly outdated. We want to see a review of how people can share assets and responsibilities – with those they choose rather than those dictated by the state.”

Ends

Media contacts

ILC – Press@ilcuk.org.uk or +44 (0) 7736 124 096. Spokespeople are available on request.

Notes

In July, the ILC, the UK’s leading authority on demographic change, embarked on a programme of work to develop a new Longevity White Paper, identifying the changes we need to make to grasp the opportunities of population ageing, and longer lives.

The report One hundred not out: A route map for long lives sets out the challenges facing ageing communities across the UK and includes a mix of next-step solutions, bolder ideas, and international examples that we believe could work to tackle them. The report is broken down into 11 chapters, each of which relates to a certain challenge our increasing life span will pose for government, industries, our society and individuals.

The ideas and solutions included in each chapter are far from an exhaustive list. If anything, we want to build upon them. We aim for these to be a conversation starter and to encourage further debate, investment and action. While we hope there are some ideas that there is a general agreement with, we also hope that there are some that provoke debate.

You can download the full report here as well as a shorter ‘In brief’ document which is not meant as a traditional executive summary but is intended to give a flavour of a few of the ideas in the full document.

Sources

Ageing | Ageing Well Without Children (AWOC) (awwoc.org)

Office for National Statistics, Census 2021 and Census 2001, Accessed through Nomis 2001 Census data – Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) and 2021 Census – Census of Population – Data Sources – home – Nomis – Official Census and Labour Market Statistics (nomisweb.co.uk)

Same-sex couples:

Source: Census 2021 (TS010) and Census 2001 (UV093). Data for England only.

Note: Numbers from 2021 Census are based on living arrangements, so won’t include people who are married or in a same sex civil partnership but who are not living together. Census 2021 data on legal partnership status suggests the total number of people in a same-sex marriage or civil partnership in England was 191,010 in 2021 (Table TS002).

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/bulletins/birthcharacteristicsinenglandandwales/2020