Increased life expectancy, a falling birth rate and the coming of retirement age of the baby boomer generation are all contributing to the need to raise the state pension age as the old age dependency ratio, defined as the ratio between the number of people aged 65 and over and no longer working as a share of those of working age, increases. In the UK, legislation has already been introduced to bring the state pension age for women in line with that of men and from December 2018 it will start to increase for both sexes to reach 66 by October 2020.
Now Brexit, particularly the hard Brexit Theresa May is championing in which Britain will leave the EU single market in exchange for absolute control of immigration, could add further pressure to the situation. Historically, immigration has helped the UK to keep the old age dependency ratio down, but cutting levels of immigrants, which is one of the major aims of hard Brexit, will mean that British workers may have to take the strain by working even longer into their sixties, or even into their seventies, to support the ageing population.
Modelling was carried out for The Guardian newspaper by Oxford University. Professor Sarah Harper who led the research and is Director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, concluded that ‘…if all migration into the UK was to be halted, then over the next five years, those coming up to retirement would have to work about one-and-a-half years longer just in order to maintain current output [of GDP]. Indeed, any significant reduction in labour immigration would wipe out the projected benefits to GDP of small delays in retirement, or require far longer working lives.’
If you don’t fancy working until you are 70, the age that many experts are predicting will be the state pension age by 2030, then now is the time to do something about it. The lucky few who will be able to choose when they retire will be those who take their financial planning seriously from a young age.
• Are you saving for your retirement?
• Are you putting aside enough to support yourself through possibly four decades of not working?
• Are your investments working as hard as they possibly can for you?
The answers to these three questions could make all the difference not just to the age at which you can retire but also to the quality of your golden years. We all want our retirement to be comfortable, free of money worries and a period when we have the opportunity to do the things we don’t have time for during our working years but those things will not be offered to us on a plate.
If you want to take control of your future and safeguard the retirement of your dreams, why not book a consultation with one of our fully qualified and highly experienced financial advisers who can help you work out whether your financial plan is on track.
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