British workers have the shortest retirements in any major EU country despite significant improvements in life expectancy. Britons are also able to enjoy less time retired than their counterparts in Germany, Italy, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, according to the study by the OECD.
Prof Sarah Harper, director of Oxford University’s Institute of Population Ageing, said that the average life expectancy figures for the UK conceal wide variations between different social groups.
“The research we have done has suggested that there is a spectrum of between 12 years of retirement for what used to be called working class men, in manual [roles], up to 22 years for the professional middle class occupations. In any of those counties which have huge inequalities, like the US and the UK, that would tend to bring the average down.
The tendency of people in people in Mediterranean countries to live longer is well recognized and thought to be linked to diet. However the difference between French women and British women is particularly interesting, it isn’t as if they have healthier lifestyles in general.They tend to have higher levels of smoking, some say it is to do with healthcare services and some say it could be to do with obesity levels [in Britain].
But the retirement gap between Britain and neighbouring countries is likely to narrow. This particular Government has pushed ahead with an increase in the state pension age and I think we will increasingly be seeing that in other European countries.
In many ways this is the future.”
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