Let’s reshape retirement together

Learn. Work. Retire. Three little worlds you won’t find emblazoned on a mug, a t-shirt or a baseball cap. Yet their meaning describes many of our lives. The mantra – like its more fashionable friends live, laugh, love or read, rave, repeat – is in desperate need of a revamp.

We are conditioned to believe that education comes first, then work, then retirement – that no longer adds up. Thanks to breakthroughs in modern medicine, technological breakthroughs and the creation of the NHS, we are living longer lives. You are probably underestimating your own life expectancy. Based solely on my age and gender, I have a 25% chance of reaching my mid-90s. 20% of baby girls in the UK will reach 100. For longer lives to be better lives, society must begin to change the way we need to think about how and when we retire.

Take education, the favourite subject of a former Labour Prime Minister. If living longer means working longer, people should be offered opportunities to learn new skills, have more on the job training and easier access to public education post 16. Learning should be a lifelong opportunity, not something you get one shot at before you’re even old enough to vote.

It could be argued that, currently, we are setting ourselves up to squander our longer and happier lives. The systems designed in the 20th-century for us to retire in our early 60’s are stopping us from taking advantage of 21st century opportunities. We’re not ready for retirement, and retirement isn’t ready for us.

Phoenix Group, the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business, set up our think tank – Phoenix Insights – to address the opportunities and challenge of longer lives. Our first major publication, A Crisis of Confidence, showed that 15 to 17 million UK adults are not saving enough to retire when they want to and on the income they want. Phoenix is committed to meeting
its customers’ needs – providing the right products and education, tools and guidance. We believe that everyone should have the chance to engage with their financial future.

We know that this support is desperately needed, when you consider the lack of guidance currently available. Many people are having to make important decisions about their pensions and investments on their own. Is it any wonder so many are worried about not having enough retirement income?

We can also play a role in opening people’s eyes to other steps they might take to get closer to the retirement they want, like working in different ways and upskilling across their lives. With more than 8,000 colleagues and 13 million customers, Phoenix Group recognises its responsibility to improve everyone’s journeys to and through retirement. We want people to have as many possibilities and opportunities as possible. But we can’t do that alone.

Too often we’ve seen longer lives deprioritised as tomorrow’s problem. We’re here to show our industry peers, politicians and LabourList readers that it’s today’s opportunity – and one we want to work together on.

Lifelong learning, retraining and upskilling is a perfect example of where we can work together to achieve success. In our recent report, Never Too Late To Learn, we concluded that reskilling and retraining midlife and older workers would not only increase productivity and accelerate economic growth, but also help people prepare for living longer lives.

We must work together to convince the business community of the case of investing more in upskilling for workers of all ages. That would mean that people can push themselves to earn more and save more. If we can convince businesses of the case for investing more in upskilling for workers of all ages, people may be in a position to earn and save more, and we could even help reverse the concerning trend of over 50s dropping out of the labour market, many of whom are not financially prepared for retirement.

Let’s be clear, people find thinking about their longer lives daunting and difficult. The fear of the unknown can be challenging and can push us into inaction. But organisations like Phoenix Group are keen to help. The good news is, we’re not starting from scratch. Steps taken by former Labour governments such as laying the foundations for AE, banning the default retirement age and the right to request flexible work are significant steps that have already been made. But if we are truly going to enable millions more of us to live better for longer we need to go further and faster.

Phoenix Group is committed to being a positive change. We are driving the research and collaboration necessary to change the way we retire. And as Labour develops its manifesto for 2024, our message to the party is simple: we want to get longer lives up the agenda; we want to help people have the later life they want; we want to reshape retirement together.

Read more about Phoenix Group’s Let’s Get Ready campaign here.