{"id":483220,"date":"2026-03-19T02:13:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/483220\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T02:13:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:13:38","slug":"children-today-will-work-until-75-amid-pensions-timebomb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/483220\/","title":{"rendered":"Children today will ‘work until 75’ amid pensions timebomb"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tSunday 15 March 2026 10:48 am
\n\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\tSunday 15 March 2026 10:49 am\n\t<\/p>\n

\"In\t\tChildren are set to work until 75 due to a pensions timebomb.\t<\/p>\n

Children currently in primary school are set to work until the age of 75 as the \u201ccollapsing\u201d birthrate<\/a> blows a black hole in public finances, a think tank has warned. <\/p>\n

The Centre for Social Justice<\/a> (CSJ) has released a report claiming the UK is heading towards a \u201cdemographic cliff edge\u201d.<\/p>\n

The report suggests the state pension age will have to rise dramatically to 75-years-old for those currently aged eight and under as a way of maintaining the current ratio of workers to pensioners.<\/p>\n

The CSJ notes the UK\u2019s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) sank to a record low of 1.41 in 2024 \u2013 far below the 2.1 required to keep the population stable without mass migration.<\/p>\n

According to the report, this has exposed a major \u201cbirth gap\u201d with over 830,000 turning 50 in 2024, while 600,000 babies were born.<\/p>\n

The UK now required an additional 250,000 births every year to stabilise the population, the CSJ says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBritain is heading off a demographic cliff edge. When fewer children are born, fewer workers enter the labour force, and the burden of supporting an ageing population falls on a shrinking number of taxpayers,\u201d Edward Davies, research director at the CSJ, said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n

\t\t\tFamily visas plummet as Mahmood targets migrant dependants\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we try to maintain today\u2019s balance between workers and pensioners, children in school today could be working well into their seventies before they qualify for a state pension.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis reflects a catastrophic failure to support the next generation of families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warnings for fiscal future<\/p>\n

The changing birthrate is set to redraw the economic infrastructure<\/a> of the UK. In the 1970s there were four workers for every pensioner.<\/p>\n

Next year, this is predicted to drop down to 3.5, and is projected to a hit a breaking point of 2:1 in the coming generations.<\/p>\n

The report highlights a fiscal future where the Budget watchdog forecasts public debt could soar to 270 per cent of GDP by the 2070s due to the escalating costs of healthcare and pensions for the elderly.<\/p>\n

In a bid to curb this, the CSJ has called on the government to move past \u201cbaby boomer politics\u201d and introduce pro-natal policies, similar to those seen in France and Hungary. These include tax relief for families, housing priority for young parents and encourage earlier adulthood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want a sustainable economy and a society that cares properly for the elderly we must start taking family seriously again,\u201d Davies said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMinisters should \u2018stop managing scarcity\u2019 in living standards push<\/a><\/p>\n

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\t\t\tPeople & Organisations\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday 15 March 2026 10:48 am \u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0 Sunday 15 March 2026 10:49 am Children are set to work…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[8807,171684,171685,171686,84,31506,171687,125802,4229,4176,420,1634,2053,821,50,4178,171688,4174,4175,229,1445,56,171689,1893,735,54,55],"class_list":["post-483220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-birth","tag-birth-gap","tag-birth-rates","tag-birthrates","tag-business","tag-centre-for-social-justice","tag-csj","tag-economic-confidence","tag-economics","tag-finance","tag-keir-starmer","tag-labour","tag-labour-party","tag-migration","tag-news","tag-pensions","tag-pensions-superfund","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-politics","tag-rachel-reeves","tag-uk","tag-uk-birthrates","tag-uk-economy","tag-uk-government","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}