One in five people will be OAPs by 2024 as Britain’s ageing population soars
The over-65s group will grow five times faster than the number of working age people
BRITAIN'S pensioner population will grow more than five times faster than its working age equivalent, new figures reveal - heaping young strivers with huge pension costs.
Over-65s will make up one in five people in every region of England apart from London by 2024.
The data will pile more pressure on PM Theresa May to ditch George Osborne’s costly triple lock pension guarantee.
But in good news for OAPs, the Office for National Statistics figures show more men will live as long as women – helping to cut loneliness.
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Pensions expert Baroness Altmann said an increasing demand for pensions from retiring baby boomers would pile pressure on the system and a double lock should be considered after 2020.
She said: “It is clear we have an ageing population.
“The baby boomer generation has been alive for decades and we have had plenty of time to plan for all this.
“We know they didn’t have children in the same numbers and the baby boomer generation is now reaching the age they want to stop working which means the pension costs are going to go up and we need to find a way of paying for it.”
According to the figures the South West is expected to have the highest number of people aged 65 and over.
The only region that will have a significantly lower number of pensioners is London.
Until 2024, the working age population is expected to grow by 3.6 per cent.
But during the same period the 65 and overs will grow by more than 20 per cent.
The data also showed England’s population was expected to grow by 7.5 per cent until mid 2024.
Experts expect to see a rise of more than a quarter in London’s Tower Hamlets, but a decline of around 4.3 per cent in Barrow-in-Furness.