Since the pandemic, people in the UK work 6 fewer months over the course of their lives with implications for our ageing population
Since the pandemic, people in the UK work 6 fewer months over the course of their lives with implications for our ageing population
- Following the warning that the state pension age might need to rise, new findings launched today by the International Longevity Centre UK (ILC) reveal that, between 2019 and 2022, people’s work span in the UK fell by 6 months.
- To enable more people to stay healthy and be in work for longer, the ILC calls upon the next government to invest more in preventing ill health, supporting people to stay in work and building healthier behaviours.
ILC has today launched the second wave of its Healthy Ageing and Prevention Index that ranks countries across the world on how well they are adapting to longer lives across six metrics: life span, health span, work span, income, environmental performance and happiness. The UK ranks 14th (out of 153 countries) and while, on the whole, people in the UK are living longer, healthier and richer lives than before the pandemic, not enough has changed.
Following the expert think tank’s warning, earlier this year, that the state pension age might need to increase to 71 by 2050 to maintain the status quo of the constant number of workers per pensioner. New ILC analysis shows that between 2019 and 2022:
- We work 6 months less than before the pandemic: our average work span has dropped from 31.6 to 31.1 years. And overall, the UK ranks 73rd (of 153 countries) in terms of time spent in work throughout our lives.
- We’re less happy: the UK’s happiness score has dropped 0.5 points from 7.2 to 6.7 (out of 10).
- And as a country, we are less environmentally sustainable than in 2019: the UK’s environmental performance score has dropped from 81.3 to 77.7.
As the country faces record skills shortages hitting all sectors, supporting people to stay in or return to work is paramount, argues ILC. Recent analysis by ILC found there were 1.65 million people aged between 50 and 69 were pushed out of work early in the UK, due to a combination of redundancy, ill health or early retirement. And according to latest ONS labour market statistics around 9.4 million people aged 16 to 64 are now economically inactive (22.1%), around 2.6 million due to ill health.
To begin to address these issues, the ILC calls on the next Government to:
- Invest at least 6% of the UK health budget annually on preventing ill health
- Support greater flexibility in the workplace and embracing initiatives such as carers’ leave and 4-day working week that will allow more people who want to be in work.
- Take forward initiatives that include minimum alcohol pricing, sugar taxes, and compulsory reformulation of foods high in fat, sugar or salt
- Provide funding for employees of all ages to pursue age discrimination through the courts
David Sinclair, ILC’s Chief Executive said “We can and should do much better. We urgently need new solutions to address the wide disparities in healthy life expectancy between rich and poor and to enable more people to stay healthy and remain in work for longer. Employers must play their part in our health and well-being at work. But they won’t do if public policy makes it too hard for them to do it. Let’s provide tax incentives for investing in workforce health and take measures to crack down on age discrimination.”
Arunima Himawan, ILC’s Senior Health Policy and Research Manager says, “The fact that British people are now working half a year less than they were in 2019 is worrying and unsustainable. Earlier this year, we warned that the state pension age would need to increase to 71 by 2050, to maintain the status quo of the constant number of workers per state pensioner. We need bolder and more effective action to extend working lives.”
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Contact
Press@ilcuk.org.uk or +44 (0) 7736 124 096. Spokespeople are available on request.
Notes
ILC, the UK’s leading authority on the impact of longevity on society, has today launched the second wave of its Healthy Ageing and Prevention Index alongside the WHO’s World Health Assembly in Geneva. The Healthy Ageing and Prevention Index measures how well 153 countries across the world are ageing, looking at life span, health span, work span, income, environmental performance and happiness.
Find out more about the event here: https://ilcuk.org.uk/prevention-index-launch/
The Healthy Ageing and Prevention Index helps track global and country-by-country progress, as well as pinpoint what governments can do to support healthier longer lives.
This project was made possible by support and charitable grants from GSK, Hallmark Foundation, MSD, Pfizer and Sanofi