8 July 2019
The IFoA hosted the “Reimagining Ageing” ILC-UK event on 14 June. Professor Stuart Gietel-Basten made an impassioned case for rethinking the way we see retirement and retirees. He argued that ageing populations are often presented as an existential threat and traditional demographic measures of ageing amplify the message that longevity creates an economic and social problem that needs to be solved. However, Professor Gietel-Basten believes these measures are based upon binary ideas: of being ‘old’ at 60 or 65, and then becoming ‘dependent’ on the labour force aged below this age.