“At a cross-roads: understanding the future likelihood of low incomes in old age” sets out ILC-UK's later life funding priorities for Government over the new Parliament.
In the White Paper, the think tank argues that a strategy for later life funding must:
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Secure effective funding for adult social care
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Implement the Dilnot reforms
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Find ways of ensuring the provision of mass market financial advice
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Develop default options for those who “sit on their pension pots and do nothing”.
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Be clear around what constitutes the deliberate deprivation of assets within the context of the new pension freedoms
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Incentivise downsizing
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Support innovation in the equity release market
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Support policy which extends working lives
The White Paper sets the agenda for the ILC-UK Centre for Later Life Funding, which will explore these issues and trends over the coming year.
Baroness Sally Greengross, ILC-UK Chief Executive said:
“We are at a cross roads. There has been undoubted progress in reducing pensioner poverty, particularly at older ages, but we must guard against complacency. Continuing reductions to social care budgets could lead to ever rising levels of unmet need and thereby greater deprivation amongst the oldest old. Not all babyboomers are wealthy and the pension freedoms alongside an over reliance on housing wealth poses risks to future retirement incomes. For tomorrow’s pensioners, there is a huge question about whether they will be able to depend on the state to provide adequate levels of support given the rising fiscal pressures of supporting an ageing population.”
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