When I’m 64: A strategy to tackle poverty before state pension age

When I’m 64
By Sasjkia Otto
Published 17 April 2024
Topics Employment , Poverty

People usually associate the years before state pension age with affluence, not poverty. But the UK is facing a hidden poverty crisis among 60 to 65-year-olds. A quarter of people aged 60 to 65 live in poverty – the highest poverty rate for any adult age group.

In this new research, the Fabian Society’s Sasjkia Otto looks at the roots of the problem and presents a strategy to address it.

Solving poverty ahead of the state pension age will require long-term action targeting people at every stage of working life. We need better health, better jobs, lifelong learning and careers support, more pension savings, and stronger social security for everyone of working-age.

But interventions are also needed now to support people over 55 to stay in work, to return to work quickly or to achieve higher living standards if they have little prospect of working much again. Solutions need to come at the problem from two directions: support for longer working lives, and improved financial support for those who cannot work more.

Read the summary report here, and the full version here.

Sasjkia Otto

Sasjkia Otto is a senior researcher at the Fabian Society

@sasjkia

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