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The State Pension would have to rise to 70 or 71 by 2050, a report says (Image: Getty)
A report has suggested the State Pension age would need to rise to 70 or 71 to ensure there are enough workers to pay the taxes needed to fund it.
The age at which people can start to claim the is currently set at 66, with a rise to 67 expected between May 2026 and March 2028.
In its report, the International Longevity Centre (ILC) details the percentage of people aged 65 and over relative to the working adult population (aged 15 to 64).
Report author, Les Mayhew, Associate Head of Global Research at ILC, said: “In the UK, [the] age would need to be 70 or 71, compared with 66 now, to maintain the status quo of the number of workers per state pensioner.”
The ILC’s report states that if the UK’s working, adult population is defined as 20 to 64 years to account for time spent in full time education then the age might need to hit 70 or more as early as 2040.
A recent stalling in life expectancy during the austerity years and pandemic has temporarily eased pressure for increases in the age beyond 67 after 2027, according to the ILC. But it says longer-term the pressure will mount to increase it to 68 or 69.
The problem is made even more acute as workers exit the workforce long before they reach age. This is because doing so reduces the tax base to pay for pensions.
ILC’s report notes: “Poor health is one of the key reasons for this and is one of the greatest barriers to economic prosperity faced by the UK today because it lowers economic output and increases taxes.
“Additionally, a smaller working population and a large economically inactive population create huge labour shortages which must be filled by migrant labour which creates additional problems.”
The ILC report notes that one solution is to enable people to work for longer, but it notes that this is “challenging”, with separate research showing that by the age of 70 just half of adults are disability-free and able to work.
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