Britain’s state pension age could be pushed up to 75 if nothing is done about the country’s collapsing birthrate, experts have warned. It comes as according to The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), it has been revealed that around three million women across the UK are on track to never have children if the current demographic pattern continues.
Its latest analysis shows that if the case were to occur, the nation would see 600,000 fewer births than earlier generations of British women.
The report identifies multiple factors contributing to the major shift, including the decline in marriage rates, women starting families at older ages, and younger men taking longer to reach traditional markers of adulthood.
The CSJ explained that encouraging men to marry and join the workforce at younger ages could reverse the trends. It also advocates “pro-natal” measures, such as tax reductions, that would make having children more financially viable for couples, reports GB News.
Though the think tank has emphasised that addressing the decline in marriage rates is the primary focus, fiscal incentives alone cannot tackle the underlying cultural changes.
One of the main concerns of the analysis is that the CSJ also believes that persistent low fertility rates could force the Government to raise the state pension age to 75 by 2039 to preserve the current ratio of workers to retirees.
According to the analysis, to maintain around 280 pensioners per 1,000 working-age people, the retirement age would need to increase.
Former Conservative MP Miriam Cates, who serves as Senior Fellow at the Centre for Social Justice and backs the report, said: “Millions of women still hope to start a family. But modern life is pushing that dream further out of reach.
“We need to stop treating families as an afterthought and do much more to support women who want to become mothers.”
She added that the effects of women not being able to have the families they desire go beyond personal heartbreak and extend to broader social and economic damage, and urged policymakers to make family formation a national priority.