Worryingly accurate reflection on today's intergenerational situation

I had been seeing lots of chat about DWP2 being out at the cinema. Ashamed my first thoughts were - do I need to watch the first one? or is it mostly just the origin story of how they merged the DSS and the Employment Service

I have a piece in today’s Guardian on the recent history of retirement: a collective social experience whose moment has almost passed? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A graphic from a 1953 government booklet exhorting employers to retain their older employees lest too many of the economically inactive become 'carried' by the producers.

If I were a government minister and I had a magic wand, I think 'make people more aware of pensions and how they work' is the thing that solves so many political problems.

This week, the State Pension age started to rise from 66 to 67. Our new research with people in their 60s shows that most people know about this change. However, our research also highlights the issue of pre-retirement poverty among people aged 60 to 65. www.standardlife.co.uk/centre-for-t...

Home Alone Home Alone 2: Lost in New York ...

Things could be worse. Just saw a dad frantically on the phone, with a kid in *FULL DINOSAUR COSTUME* at the school gates who had turned up for World Book Day a week early...

Ooh - handy list of PRACTICAL TIPS FOR WORKING PARENTS for anyone after some childcare hacks for the "summer childcare crunch" Not sure why I hadn't thought of...*checks notes*... the Ritz-Carlton, Gleneagles, Southern California or one in Fiji who actually 'get' what parents need lnkd.in/eRSJVrUN

This is the right framing and question. We can learn a lot about the real world experiment of UBI in a socially/politically acceptable packaging (the State Pension) Most agree the State Pension is there to ensure everyone has a minimum level of income in retirement.

New research from us at the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement: "Decisions in the dark: How the DC pioneer generation are navigating retirement income decisions" Report explores the psychology and emotions of accessing DC pension pots. www.standardlife.co.uk/centre-for-t...

I had a great time chatting about older people with @timharford.ft.com on BBC4 More or Less. The starting question was – are one in four pensioners really millionaires? Quick thread below: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Brilliant think tank job opportunity Come work for us at the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement Asking (and hopefully answering) some of the big questions for people, industry and government Closing this Mon 12th Jan fa-enor-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Knowing with some certainty that there is a group in society who's rates of poverty will double in the next few years - is that the best outcome we can hope for? That's what will happen to 66 year olds from next April - how can we weather the change? www.standardlife.co.uk/centre-for-t...

New report out today "Jam tomorrow? Work, finances and retirement in an era of a rising State Pension age" Higher State Pension age has led to higher employment among people in their 60s. But there are 250k more people in pre-retirement poverty than in 2010 www.standardlife.co.uk/centre-for-t...

Incredible to see how different things were. In the 1970s pensioners were most likely to live in poverty. Pining after lamp shades, butter and barley water... Now a new challenge - 250,000 more in pre-retirement poverty since the state pension age began to rise share.google/9lPMsYNWq0Gt...

New research out today "Retirement Voice 2025: How an era of uncertainty is affecting our attitudes towards retirement" We used a new 6k survey of the UK population. I had fun designing the charts! Find out how people feel about finances, work and retirement www.standardlife.co.uk/centre-for-t...

Good piece in the FT which cites our research from the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement on the demographics of the Industrial Strategy workforce.

Interesting chart from this @stephenkb.bsky.social piece. Should be viewed alongside the birth-rate chart (see next post). www.ft.com/content/107a...

Ahead of the Euro 2025 quarterfinals... How would you feel if the officials added an additional 14 minutes of injury time at the end of the 90? That's how much longer women in the UK need to achieve pay parity. In Belgium it's just 1 extra minute

Who do you picture working in the high-growth, high-tech sectors of rhe Industrial Strategy? These sectors are older than average and all have a higher rates of early retirement. We estimate this costs economy £31bn - we need to plan for this www.standardlife.co.uk/centre-for-t...

2 year old who loves nothing more than stickers and rainbows devastated when I come home from work wearing a rainbow sticker that wasn't for her...

Policy thinking on a topic like the State Pension helped by clear A/B choices even if cost neutral Raising the AGE hits lower earners (most rely on it /feel effect of longer wait) Limiting it's VALUE hit higher earners more (live longer and get more over lifetime) academic.oup.com/oxrep/articl...

In terms of retirement savings we have a definite group who missed out on DB pensions, and a big chunk of auto enrolment. What's worrying is the number who still think that their retirement will 'turn out ok' because their parent's did

According to Demos, across all local authorities, adult and children’s social care combined accounts for 67% of spending demos.co.uk/blogs/public...

Surprising fact to me: Environmental Taxes in the UK are lower now as % of GDP as any point in the last 25 years Average household paid less in 2022 than they did in 1999. Not inflation adjusted - in actual £ terms Taxes raise money but they also shape behaviour www.ons.gov.uk/economy/envi...

This is an excellent Lords Select Committee session - nominally on the economics of ageing - but opens up all the big topics: ageism, productivity, career change, fertility, social care, and the 'nastiest, hardest problem in finance' @csfoot.bsky.social parliamentlive.tv/event/index/...

So pleased to have Andrew (one of the best brains in the Think Tank land) joining the team at Phoenix Insights. We've got lots of exciting working in the pipeline and exciting to be tackling some of the big questions of the day www.thephoenixgroup.com/phoenix-insi...

New research out today looking at the potential economic benefit of better adult careers guidance. £70bn mismatching between people's skills and their roles 4.5m people who either want to move jobs, are unhappy at work or at risk of automation www.thephoenixgroup.com/phoenix-insi...

My animals? Super furry

For anyone interested in careers advice, skills, and productivity. We have exciting new research out with Public First on Thursday with an event on 5th March Modeling the potential benefit of better skills matching through the lens of the new National Jobs and Careers Service Watch this space...

'Endangered Frog Dad' making all us regular old dads look useless as per usual www.bbc.com/news/article...

Interesting article on changing pension landscape Wealthier /well pensioned people may end up shifting behaviour for tax reasons But as our Phoenix Insights research shows - for more than half of people retiring between now and 2060 that's academic if they've undersaved on.ft.com/4hCi1zJ

(Newspaper Headlines): Zombie Apocalypse Set To Reduce YOUR Mortgage Rates

Think Tank job - Phoenix Insights are hiring a policy and research manager Really exciting and interesting work across a range of big policy areas, making the most of longer lives Deadline is 10th Jan fa-enor-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

This is great Draw your own chart game: how well do you know the jobs market? on.ft.com/4gl4igx

Been a good lesson in empirical process for our 6 & 8 y olds. Clearly know the whole thing is INSANE but no benefit in not believing. Questions on physics of sleigh travel/toy production. + an obvious one that caught me out: How do we know what father christmas looks like if no one's seen him?

Excellent piece from @sarahoconnorft.bsky.social Why the public doesn’t buy the idea of a ‘green jobs’ bonanza - on.ft.com/415lCB7 The Northvolt example is v good. We ran focus groups with mid career workers - career change already seen as risky, to green jobs more. Perceived security matters

Today is Carers Rights Day Only a quarter of people think they will be a carer before they reach state pension age. In reality half of people become an unpaid carer by the age of 50

Fascinating new stats looking at how working interacts with age and how that's changed post pandemic. Previously mostly linked to age with oldest workers working from home. But now those in their mid careers most want to (or most able to?) work from home www.thephoenixgroup.com/phoenix-insi...

It's #equalpayday The average woman in the UK never earns more than £20 an hour at any age. Average man earns more than £20 /hr each year from their mid 30s to 60. It impacts day to day and over a lifetime www.thephoenixgroup.com/phoenix-insi...

Interesting in terms of IHT and farming (irrespective of who is actually impacted) Agriculture is by a *long way* the oldest sector and continuing to age. The average agricultural worker is 48 (and average age of someone born in the 1960s loses their second parent is 58 - IFS)

What was the UK like in 1994? Wet Wet Wet entered the charts, the Eurotunnel opened, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair had lunch in Granita New research shows the way we save, work and retire has also changed... 🧵

Talking the price of ice cream with 6 year old leads to explaining inflation Open mouthed that a whippy might cost £5 (5 x tooth fairy teeth) 6yo: wow everything you buy must be getting *so* good if they cost that much! Well....

2050 feels a long way away. Which is a problem for messaging on Net Zero I'll be 66 in 2050. One way or another every job I have from now until retiring will need to be a green(er) job Our new research on why some ages are against moving into "green jobs" ifamagazine.com/phoenix-grou...

Heard someone describe younger people as "non-older people" today

Really interesting topic. We've been looking at this and people have a very real fear of change. There's a big perceived risk that all sits with the individual, so often people stay put longer than they probably should. We'll be doing more on this in Phienix Insights...

I've written a new personal post - probably a bit too personal. It's on how things go wrong in our lives, and why the state should be there to help more reliably when they do. acjsissons.medium.com/the-state-sh...

Google analytics trying to parse why someone has suddenly gone on a highly erratic 12 mile bike ride (lost child - all ok in the end)

We looked at this chart a lot when lookimg at how people feel about the state pension. Unlike the NHS, education or any other major form of public spending, almost all the costs to the individual are felt earlier in life and all the benefits accrued later on www.thephoenixgroup.com/phoenix-insi...