Young people will suffer most from the government’s failure to take seriously the unsustainable pressure on public finances and living standards created by the UK’s ageing population, according to the findings of a House of Lords inquiry.
The report, Preparing for an Ageing Society, by the economic affairs committee, also found successive governments’ inaction on adult social care “remains a scandal”.
But it also argued against the impact of age discrimination in the workplace. “The most damaging form of age discrimination [could be] self-directed, with older workers operating under a mistaken impression of its extent and therefore limiting their own choices,” it found.
Lord Wood of Anfield, the committee’s chair, said, unlike the unpredictable challenges of climate change, defence and AI, ageing was a knowable, long-term challenge – and one that will touch every area of society and the economy.
“But it is difficult to locate a part of government that is focused on this challenge,” he said. “One of the things we want to point out in this report is that the biggest impact will fall on the young and on people who are yet to be born.
“It is these people who are going to face lives that extend, on average, into their 90s but still live in a world which is structured on a principle of, you go to school, you have a job, and you retire in your 60s.”
The report poured cold water on several policy levers often cited by governments as solutions: raising the state pension age, increasing immigration or attempting to boost fertility rates would not, on their own, offset the combined impact of falling birthrates and rising life expectancy, it said.
Instead, it concluded that the single biggest improvement to the UK’s fiscal outlook would come from encouraging and incentivising people in their mid-50s to mid-60s to remain in work or return after leaving the labour market.
It also urged ministers to rethink assumptions about older workers after finding that age discrimination does not play a significant role in pushing people out of the workplace, suggesting the problem may lie elsewhere.
The report stressed that keeping older people in work was inseparable from fixing the care system. With families having fewer children, the supply of informal care provided by younger relatives is shrinking, exacerbating pressure on the formal care workforce.
“The lack of a meaningful solution to the adult social care crisis – which has been recognised for many years – remains a scandal,” Wood said. “We urge the government to address this urgently.”
The committee said an ageing population would require more care workers, inevitably reducing the number of people available to other parts of the economy.
A government spokesperson said: “We recognise the challenges of an ageing population and are taking action to improve healthy life expectancy and reform adult social care.
“We are progressing towards a national care service with higher-quality care, greater choice and better integration between services – backed by over £4bn additional funding available for adult social care by 2028-29 compared to 2025-26.
“Through our Get Britain Working reforms, we will boost employment by overhauling jobcentres and providing personalised work and skills support.”
