Catherine Foot, Director of Phoenix Insights, said:
“Living longer is one of the greatest gifts of the 21st century and we all want to make the most of it. But our report reveals it’s a serious fear for nearly half of us. Millions of people are concerned they may be unable to support themselves financially in later life and are not confident they can act now to improve their financial future. This could leave millions of people facing serious challenges later in life.
“Part of the problem is that we still seem to be living with a mid-20th century model of life, yet so much has changed. Many of us in the UK will spend a third or even more of our adult life over the age of 65 – but it’s going to be hard for lots of us to sustain what could be a 30-year retirement or more from only 40 years of working.
“Though government is facing many other pressures and priorities today, there is no doubt we need to act now to support people to save more and to stay in the workforce if they need to. We all need to come together to radically reimage our approach to work, training, housing and how we tackle health inequalities.”
Phoenix Insights was set up at the end of last year by Phoenix Group, the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business, with a mission to transform the way society responds to the possibilities of longer lives. It’s led by Catherine Foot, a leading research and policy expert in the field of ageing and longevity. To help drive forward the national conversation that is needed to ensure the UK rises to the challenges that longer lives can bring, all the findings from the research will be publicly available on a newly created Longer Lives Index data hub.
A Crisis of Confidence is based on independent data gathered for Phoenix Insights’ inaugural Longer Lives Index, delivered in partnership with economic consultancy Frontier Economics and based on a large survey of more than 16,000 adults over the age of 25.
Andy Briggs, Group Chief Executive Officer at Phoenix Group and UK Government Business Champion for Older Workers, said:
“Phoenix Group’s social purpose is to help people secure a life of possibilities and that is why we have established Phoenix Insights, to tackle challenges we face as an ageing society and enable everyone in the UK to feel confident about their longer lives. To do that, we need to reimagine how we save, learn, work and live, and we need to start taking action now. We are looking to drive forward the thinking, innovation and changes that will be necessary to enable us all to live better longer lives.”
