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The UK is not alone in its demographic crisis. As former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt pointed out yesterday in the Commons, an ageing population with decreased birth rates is plaguing much of the Western world. But instead of taking the pandemic response as an opportunity to reform the way in which we structure pensions, the NHS and social care, this government has decided, yet again, to go with stop-gap measures.
It’s not an easy conversation to have: reform. Pensioners feel entitled to their state benefits – that they have made sacrifices in their lives which perhaps today’s young people would never dare. But we must also consider the way in which the system’s flaws impact pensioners’ own kin and kith: our broken social care system lets down those most in need, while pension benefits create an even more top heavy intergenerational balance.
Young people in the UK are not slackers. They are playing a game where the rules were devised when women stayed at home, houses cost only twice an average salary (as opposed to 8x), and university was free.
There’s plenty we can do to improve this. Scrapping the triple-lock would be a good place to start. Instead, peg pensions to a genuine measure of the rest of the economy, like inflation. Revisit the ways in which we structure pension pots to encourage more private pensions and savings. And, as is the theme of the week, reform social care: not by throwing money at the problem, but by creating genuine public-private partnerships, so that those with that can pay their own way do.
If we are to create a system which is sustainable in the coming decades, we don’t need to pit young against old. But we are in desperate need of fairer tax policies and a discussion of how our money is spent: before there is none left to go around.
Because you read about government
Also by Morgan Schondelmeier
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