Originally posted by Daddy!!:
The current dependency ratio is 30% (retired / working), by
2016, this ratio is 36%.
see below, "planned increase in pension age". so UK has to increase
the retirement age too.
So everyone, 2014 to 2016 seems to be the years where the
demographic time bomb explodes globally.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said:
"Britain is sitting on a 'demographic time bomb'. If we are going
to enable older people to stay in work and off benefits, employers
are going to have to stop pushing them out on bogus health and
safety grounds and start working to keep them employed. The new age
laws should be a useful tool in ensuring older workers can continue
to earn a quality living but also that the UK economy benefits from
the energy and expertise of a valuable section of the
workforce.'
November 24 2006 - A new report in the journal Hazards indicates
that over one-third of UK workers believe they will be unable to do
their current job by the time they are sixty. In the last six years
the UK has slipped from first to sixth in the European league table
in this respect. The report argues that employers should stop using
bogus health and safety excuses to get rid of older staff or avoid
recruiting from this age group. Instead they should make more
effort to keep the ageing UK population in work and off
benefits.
The report entitled "Going strong" shows that the great majority of
employees have no significant health problems to prevent them
working up to sixty-five or beyond if they wish. However, poor
health is the most common reason why people over fifty leave work,
with only half retiring early by choice.
The report highlights the 2005 European Working Conditions Survey
that shows just 63.5 per cent of UK workers feel confident they
will be able to do their existing job when aged sixty. This
compares to Germany (73.6 per cent), the Netherlands (71.2 per
cent), Sweden (69.7 per cent), Denmark (68.8 per cent) and Finland
(65.2 per cent).
The Employers' Forum on Age study (2005) found that almost half the
UK workforce would be happy to work until they were seventy, but
only one in five thought they would be fit enough. As the
population ages, the dependency ratio between workers and
pensioners is increasing. By 2016 the number of people under fifty
will have fallen by 2 per cent, while the number aged 50-69 will
have increased by 17 per cent.
Older people in the UK are much more likely to be economically
inactive due to a disability than in any other EU or OECD country.
This is especially true for those over sixty. One study found that
40 per cent of men and 20 per cent of women left work sooner than
anticipated, with employers instigating two-thirds of those early
retirements.
The report challenges false stereotypes about older people and
fitness for work. Physical ability is dependent on health and
fitness across the whole lifecycle, psychometric and cognitive
capabilities do not deteriorate until well after state pension age.
People over fifty are positive about learning IT skills. Older
workers tend to have fewer but longer spells of absence than
younger colleagues.
The report argues that given the UK's demographic time bomb of a
rapidly ageing workforce and planned increase in state pension age
older workers should turn to newly-introduced protection against
age discrimination to keep their jobs and resist being pushed onto
benefits. It calls for age and disability legislation to be used in
parallel to require employers to make reasonable adjustments,
usually minor and inexpensive, to enable staff to stay in work as
long as possible.
The report also recommends that older workers should have a legal
right to request flexible working patterns as they approach
retirement and that employers should develop age management
strategies for over staff aged over forty-five, to minimize strains
on health. This should include identifying and supporting training
needs and implementing workplace exercise programmes.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said:
"Britain is sitting on a 'demographic time bomb'. If we are going
to enable older people to stay in work and off benefits, employers
are going to have to stop pushing them out on bogus health and
safety grounds and start working to keep them employed. The new age
laws should be a useful tool in ensuring older workers can continue
to earn a quality living but also that the UK economy benefits from
the energy and expertise of a valuable section of the
workforce.'
Rory O'Neill, editor of Hazards added:
"We are living longer and we are staying healthier longer, so there
is no rational reason why we shouldn't be able to survive Britain's
workplaces for fifty years or more. But intense, stressful, poorly
designed work will exact a cumulative toll, so employer-run and
government-supported 'work ability' initiatives need to target
workers in middle age, so that the workforce remains skilled up and
not worn down." [b][/b]
Uk have been in a demographic time bomb for as long as i can
remember. That i agree with u. But one thing i dun agree is, I will
never pity those British youth in debt. If they choose to spend
themselves into bad debt, who else can they blame but themselves?
They got what they deserve.