• No comprehensive plan of action to Build Back Better by better responding to the challenges and opportunities of longer lives.
• Government must invest in a “Kickstarter” scheme to support older workers forced out of work due to COVID-19.
• Budget misses opportunity to focus more investment in preventative health.

Responding to the Budget announced today, David Sinclair, Director of the International Longevity Centre UK (ILC), commented:

“We won’t Build Back Better or deliver the vision for a ‘future economy’ without recognising the economic and social challenges and opportunities which come from demographic change. Our workforce is getting older, our consumers are getting older, our carers and volunteers are getting older.

Yet the Budget has missed an opportunity to recognise the enormity of the policy challenges which come from us living increasingly longer lives.

Longevity could offer a huge economic return for UK PLC. By 2040, over-50s could be spending 63p in every pound. And supporting people to spend or work for longer could add 2% to UK GDP every year.

We won’t Build Back Better without investing in health systems and focussing more of that spend on preventative health. Without this focus, Government won’t be able to deliver its ambitious goal of ensuring people can enjoy at least 5 extra healthy, independent years of life by 2035.

It is great news that Kickstart has funded jobs for a quarter of a million younger people. But older workers have also been hit hard by the pandemic. The Government must find a way of delivering a similar scheme for those older workers made redundant due to COVID-19.”