Improving recruitment and retention of an ageing workforce
The population is ageing: people are living longer and wanting to keep active more than ever before. Enabling people to work a year or two longer is critical for our economy, employers, individuals and pensions sustainability. For example:
- if everyone worked a year longer, real GDP could increase by around 1% (about £14 billion)
- retiring 2 years after State Pension age and continuing to save in that time can enhance private pension income by 20% (Pensions Policy Institute report, ‘Closing the gap: the choices and factors that can affect private pension income in retirement’ (338KB)
, Feb 2012) - as the proportion of over 50s in the workforce increases to a third, employers are increasingly dependent on their skills and experience
- working longer can support the financial, health and social well-being of individuals into later life
- raising State Pension age, initially to 66 by 2020, will help maintain a sustainable balance between proportions of workers and retired people.
The Government’s Extending Working Life policy helps business and social partners to improve opportunities for people to work up to State Pension age and beyond if they wish.
To enable more sustainability in future pensions the Government is:
