'Longevity time bomb' warning
Updated on 16 April 2008
The UK is facing a "ticking time bomb of longevity" with people unprepared for the financial impact of living longer, it has been claimed.
The Life Trust Foundation, which was launched to raise public awareness about the financial issues relating to longer lives, said someone who was aged 55 today had a one in two chance of living until they were 90 and a one in four chance of living to 95.
But it warned that insufficient attention was being paid to the financial implications of increased life expectancy.
The group has been set up to boost understanding of the financial issues associated with longer life spans and to encourage innovation from both individuals and institutions in dealing with the situation.
It plans to begin by working with the Institute of Ageing at the University of Oxford to analyse the current information on longevity and inform future research.
It will also be setting up a consumer panel of people aged between 60 and 85 to gain insights into the behaviour and attitudes of older people, and to better understand the relationship between money, lifestyle, health and happiness.
Other initiatives include carrying out research into the ways in which other countries plan to cope with their ageing populations, holding a seminar to bring together representatives from academia, business and charity to discuss the issue and creating a website to share information on research.
Lord Hunt of Wirral, the chairman of the Life Trust Foundation, said: "Many people simply do not realise the scale of the financial impacts associated with increasing longevity, and it is precisely this sentiment that lies behind the foundation's formation.
"We are ... pledging to take a leading role in providing people and institutions with the knowledge they require to face up to the fact we are all living longer.
"This is not an issue which is going to go away, and we want to play our part in diffusing the ticking time bomb of longevity."
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