Britons might have to work until they reach 71 in the future to enable the country to afford the state pension, a report has suggested.
Currently 66, the age when the stake pension starts will rise to 67 from May 2026 but the think-tank International Longevity Centre believes it might need to rise to 70 or 71 by 2040 to be sustainable.
High rates of people leaving the workforce early due to ill health might lift that target even higher, says the ILC.
Les Mayhew, the author of the report, said: “In the UK, state pension 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.
“But if you bring preventable ill health into the equation, that would have to increase even more.”
Mayhew, a professor of statistics at Bayes Business School has advised the government before on state pension age changes.
Half of the population is unable to work past seventy says the report, with data from the ILC suggesting that the elderly stopping working is one of the major handicaps to improving productivity.
It says the countries that do worse on its Healthy Ageing and Prevention Index have rapidly ageing populations.
At least 20 countries on the Index are predicted by at 50% or just one worker per retiree by 2050,
If the proportion of the economically active population were to increase from current levels of around 78% to 85% the state pension age might stay below 70 from 2040, it suggests.