People are living longer, and older people make up a growing proportion of the UK population.
How can countries support a rising proportion of pensioners without putting an intolerable burden on taxpayers? What changes need to be made to the state pension, the health service, and the
age at which pensioners can retire?
These questions will be debated at this year's BA Festival of Science, in a session on "Pension reform and the welfare of pensioners". Top researchers from Europe and America will discuss the way forward for government policy, drawing on experience and data from the UK and abroad.
Frances Cairncross, Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council and author of a recent survey of retirement in The Economist, will be chairing the session. She says, "How we deal with pensions policy now and in the future is one of the most important questions facing our society today. At this session some of the leading thinkers on pensions will debate the key questions."
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