In the UK, and in Europe as a whole, it’s a fact that our population is ageing. It is still unclear what this will mean for society, both in terms of employment and socially. However, governments are already making plans. For a better idea, the current retirement is age 67. If you started working at 17, you would have paid tax in the UK for 50 years. The amount of years spent working is decreasing as people enter the workforce later due to the changes in formal education. Now, we can only stop our formal education at 18 or at the end of University at 21, or 22. We can live longer and retire later.
If more people are living past 100 years old, then the amount of time spent in retirement will be almost equal to the time we spent working. The government doesn’t like this because it puts the people at a loss over what they paid in. We will soon see the retirement age rise. It was previously 65 for men and women. In the past, based on an average life expectancy, governments only had to pay for a few years. It would appear that we will be living longer, and this can lead to increased costs for residential care or the NHS. We need to all be more prepared perhaps by considering living in Park Homes Gloucestershire.
One thing we can look at is where we are going to live and downsizing offers a solution that is a benefit and needs to be investigated as the need for our care is important. Find out more about Park Homes Gloucestershire by visiting Park Home Life.
Not only the government has looked at this issue but the World Health Organisation has radically rethought its definition of age groups. This may not be to everyone’s taste or get universal approval, but it’s here.
0-17 – Underage. I don’t like to tell a 16 or 17 year old they are underage, but there has to be a limit. It’s a huge improvement when you consider we began formal education only 60 years ago and that children started working at age 7 in some industries just 150 years ago.
Youth and young people aged 18-24.
49 – 65 is now middle aged.
Seniors aged 65 and above 99 This seems to be about right. I’m not going to argue with the term “old” if I’m over 80.