Retirement living standards in the UK in 2023

When the retirement living standards were first established and published in 2019, few would have anticipated the significant global shocks and events of the past four years. The Covid-19 pandemic, the political upheaval and uncertainty in the UK and globally, conflict in the Ukraine, the cost of living crisis, growing strains on the NHS, have all left their mark on society and on shared norms and expectations. Living standards in the UK have stagnated (OBR, 2023) and a growing proportion of pensioners have incomes that fall short of the level needed for a minimum socially acceptable standard of living, the income they need to live with dignity in the UK (see Padley and Stone, 2024). In this context, the retirement living standards have been ‘rebased’ in 2023 – that is, groups of members of the public have been tasked with agreeing afresh what is needed for a moderate, and a comfortable, standard of living in retirement in contemporary UK. This report details what the public agree is needed for a minimum, moderate and comfortable retirement living standard in 2023. It begins by outlining the approach taken to establishing public consensus about what is required in order to reach each of the standards. It then goes on to highlight and describe the changes that have occurred in the standards since they were first set out in 2019, as well as exploring, in detail, what emerged through the many hours of discussions about both the moderate and the comfortable retirement living standards. The report ends by setting out the implications of this new research for the expenditure needed to reach a minimum, moderate or a comfortable standard of living in retirement.