Mon 11 Mar 2019, 06:25 AM | Posted by editor
LETTER by Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot CLP, personal capacity.
An article in The Guardian newspaper reports that the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, the body that calculates life expectancy for the pensions industry, have reduced average life expectancy by six months. This reduction applied to both men and women. The actuaries also state that the evidence of a slowdown in life expectancy emerged around 2010/11. They also regard this as a trend, rather than just a ‘blip’.
The article then goes on to explain that the pension companies will be the chief beneficiaries from shortening life expectancy. City analysts believe that there will be large shareholder gains, in the form of major reserve releases. This downgrade in life expectancy projections comes at the same time as the first increase in the state pension age. The rational for the increases was that we are all living longer.
The article quotes the director of UCL’s Institute of Health Equity, who stated that, “it’s entirely possible that austerity has had an impact”. Other research indicates that there has been a slow down in many other European countries. However, the extent of the fall has been greater in the UK than elsewhere in the EU.
These reports sums up Tory rule. Falling average life expectancy and the mayor insurance/pension companies profiting from it. Labour, and in my view, it’s when rather if, enters office, it must bring the big banks and insurance companies into public ownership. This would enable the Government to access the resources to reverse the cuts in health and welfare and halt the fall in life expectancy.
