Choose life

Life expectancy at birth has increased by three years for every decade according to new figures from the Office of National Statistics.

For men life expectancy at birth has increased from 51 years in 1910/12 to 79 in 2010/12 and for women women’s from 55 to 83 over the same period across England and Wales.

This has been put down to falling death rates among children and babies and also better care and treatment for the elderly.

“The achievements of the NHS and the quality of healthcare have contributed significantly to this welcome report that people in the UK are living longer,” said Barrie Brown Unite national officer for health.

However the current social care system is under enormous strain and our NHS hugely underfunded which raises doubts over how England and Wales will cope with generations of people living longer and placing further strain on limited resources.

Properly funded

“It is vital that we have an NHS which is properly funded to support and ensure the quality of life for those who live longer,” he added.

The UK spends less on health as a proportion of GDP than the EU average and UK has just 2.95 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

NHS leaders fear a ÂŁ30bn hole in its finances by 2020 unless ministers double the ÂŁ8bn they have pledged to the NHS.

“The current ‘protected’ funding of the NHS by this government would not provide the resources and level of care which would be necessary when funding is falling well below the percentage of GDP for NHS spending established by the former Labour government,” said Brown.

With future generations predicted to spend up to a third of their life in retirement the figures also prompt concerns that the state pension age may have to rise much faster than previously calculated.

Some say an increase in the state pension age to 70 is ‘inevitable’ by the middle of the century on the government’s current policy. As life expectancy rises so will the retirement age.

Opposed

“Unite is opposed to any increase in the State Pension Age beyond age 65. We will continue to campaign to change that policy and make it more flexible,” said Gail Cartmail, Unite Assistant General Secretary.

She added: “Pension ages need to take into account people’s health and background. While some people may retire at 70 and enjoy a good decade of healthy retirement others may not.

Pipe dream

“Wear and tear is not confined to those doing manually strenuous jobs such as drilling roads, the combination of physical effort and mental stress for example experienced by paramedics make retirement at 70 a pipe dream for many workers.

“Someone working a very manual job like drilling roads will not necessarily be in such good health at 70 as someone who has done an office job their whole life.

“Everyone should be entitled to retire at an age where they are healthy and able enough to fully enjoy their retirement and do all the things they had hoped to.”

The state pension age is due to rise to 65 for both men and women in 2018, before increasing to 66 by 2020 and 67 by 2028.