Warning ageing population could lead to 'mass poverty'

Britain faces a future of unimaginable poverty unless it tackles the reality of an ageing population.

That is the warning from Tracey Morgan, chief executive of the charity Age Concern Slough and Berkshire East.

She was adding her support to the forthcoming report by the House of Lords, which warns that age-related spending will top a quarter of the nation's entire expenditure within decades.

Tracey said: “Our society is in denial about the inevitability of ageing. We have put off the difficult decisions for far too long and we face a future with mass poverty, on a scale that we simply cannot imagine today.

“We must not be afraid to tell people that they are likely to need to work longer and that state pension ages will need to increase further as healthy life expectancy changes.”

She warned that older people will have to use the value of their houses increasingly to finance their own care, leaving a younger generation that cannot afford to get on the housing market without even the hope of inheriting a home.

She warns that it is impossible for people to plan for ageing now because political parties are failing to take a strategic or coherent approach.