Lifestyles of the Over-55s - UK - April 2012
Introduction
 
With life expectancy on the rise, Britain’s population is ageing, whilst the share of working-age adults is not rising at anywhere near the same speed. Recognising that state pension support would soon become untenable, the government is in the process of implementing changes to state pension requirements, including incrementally raising the age of retirement. 

Whilst many adults of retirement age would be materially affected by the government’s policy changes, today’s over-55s exhibit a lot of confidence in their finances, and in particular those who are retired. To a large degree, the over-55s have been sheltered from the recent economic turmoil by high home and asset ownership, and children flying from the nest frees up discretionary income even further for those who are parents. 

At the same time, financial confidence has to be reconciled with having to live on fixed incomes, presently or in the near future. Thus, this age group, which is typically focused on quality, increasingly seeks out trade-offs between quality and value. As the presence of the over-55s grows, so does the importance of the ‘grey pound’ in the marketplace, and the loyalty of this demographic may very well make or break a business. 

Methodology
Mintel conducted online consumer research in February 2012 on a sample of 1,333 adults aged 55+. 

Abbreviations
BRC	British Retail Consortium	
BSP	Basic State Pension	
CCCS	Consumer Credit Counselling Service	
OBR	Office for Budget Responsibility	
SPA	State Pension Age	
TGI	Target Group Index. For further details concerning this information, including data regarding readership patterns of users/purchasers and details of brands, please contact Daniel Flynn (Daniel.flynn@kantarmedia.com 020 8433 4081) at Kantar Media