Healthy life expectancy has taken a tumble, raising a question mark over retirement planning, says Hargreaves Lansdown.
The latest data from the Office for National Statistics showed that in 2021 to 2023, men in England could expect to spend 61.5 years of their lives in good health, while in Wales the figure was 60.3 years. For women it was 61.9 years in England and 59.6 years in Wales.
In 2021 to 2023, males aged 65 years in England could expect to spend 10.1 years in good health, compared with 9.8 years in Wales. For females, it was 11.2 years in England and 10.4 years in Wales.
The figures have fallen since the pre-pandemic era, the ONS said. Since 2017 to 2019, male healthy life expectancy in England has fallen by 1.7 years and in Wales by 1.1 years, while women have seen their healthy life expectancy reduced by 1.9 years in England and 2.2 years in Wales.
Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the figures expose “the dilemma at the heart of retirement planning”; what happens if people are too ill to work.
State pension age is currently 66 and rising and many people expect to rely on their private pensions from their mid-60s, suggesting there is a “worrying gap” that needs to be filled, said Morrissey.
“This has major impacts on our retirement planning. All our best laid plans can unravel if the reality is that we struggle to work well into our sixties and we could face a period of years where we are too ill to work and are too young to claim our state pensions. This puts extra pressure on our own pension savings to make up the gap.
“This data will also provide food for thought in the ongoing debate into state pension age. It is currently slated to rise to 68 by the mid-2040s but declines in healthy life expectancy should form a key part in the debate into whether it should rise further,” said Morrissey.
