The Office for National Statistics has just published new data showing the number of years people born in the UK could expect to spend in “good” general health – and it’s not great news for many people looking to keep working into their 60s or beyond… or facing the prospect of giving up work to take on caring responsibilities.

The new data shows that healthy life expectancy has dropped to the lowest levels in the UK since records began 15 years ago.

In England, healthy life expectancy at birth in 2022 to 2024 was just 60.9 years for men and 61.3 years for women. This represents a drop of seven months for both men and women since 2021 to 2023 and a drop of 22 months for men and 29 months for women since the end of the pandemic.

Women born in the UK can now expect to live less than three-quarters of their life (73%) before poor health sets in – men slightly higher at 77%.

Healthy life expectancy was highest in the South East (63 years for men and 64.3 years for women) and lowest in North East (57 years for men and 56.9 years for women) in 2022 to 2024.

Sarah Wilkinson, Evidence Manager at the Centre for Ageing Better, said: “Getting older is a vastly different experience for different people. Where you live, how much money you earn – these are significant factors in shaping our health in later life.”

The implications for retirement planning

All this has massive potential issues for your retirement planning.

According to Helen Morrisey of Hargreaves Lansdown: “Poor health can impact our ability to keep working, and that means it gets that much harder to build up a pension.

“It puts people in the sticky position of building a smaller pension because their working lives are shorter, but needing it to last longer because they may have to leave work early.

“Another issue is that the age at which you can claim a state pension will soon rise to 67. It forms the very backbone of people’s retirement income and yet there will be many who will have a gap of several years between potentially having to leave work and claiming this benefit. How do they make up the gap?”

The deteriorating figures cast a stark spotlight on the Government’s plan to progressively delay the age at which people can draw their State Pension in the years ahead.

It also demonstrates the need for more employers to offer flexible working arrangements or retraining to those who may still need to keep working in some capacity.

According to Morrisey, “It also shows the huge importance of building savings over and above pensions, if you can. It might be the case that you need to leave or make big modifications to your working life at an age where you are unable to access your pension.

“In this case, having money in ISAs and savings accounts will be hugely important in giving you something else to draw from.”

Then there is the carer issue…

Having to leave work early, or cut back on work commitments because of a parent or partner’s poor health, can also damage your wealth in retirement.

A new survey from Just Group shows that more than a third (38%) of unpaid carers aged 45–75 anticipate struggling in retirement because of caring responsibilities.

More than half (54%) said they are now putting less into their pension – increasing the risk of a retirement income shortfall.

On top of that, almost half (49%) report a drop in their salary income, while more than a third (36%) have quit their jobs or reduced working hours.

Could poor health mean paying for care in retirement?

Poor health starting earlier in our later years could also significantly affect our retirement outgoings.

Having a disability or health condition that makes it difficult or impossible to do housework, or needing domiciliary care, can add thousands of pounds to your annual outgoings.

Making provision for any of these contingencies could prove vital.

Using your RetireEasy LifePlan will allow you to run different scenarios to see just how robust your current projections are… testing them out against having to leave the workplace earlier than planned, for instance, or needing to pay for care in your later years.

That would allow you to make any necessary adjustments and build greater certainty into your savings and investment plans in good time.

If your subscription has lapsed, just a few pounds a month will make sure your financial future is secure!