In developed nations, rising life expectancy is regarded as the advanced medical facilities and high standard of living. However, the population raise have significant challenges on individuals as well as society.
At an individual level, retirees relay on fixed pension or savings for their extended retirement life. This could cause a financial insecurity among old people during extended lifespan. In addition to this, older people may face social isolation and declining mental health after they leave the workforce, particularly with limited family support. This may have detrimental effect on the mental wellbeing of an older person.
At societal level, government encounters financial burden for providing health care facilities to the elders, this may hinder the development of the country as a whole. Furthermore, the pension and allowances provided by the government to more than decades might be insufficient for them to manage their medical expenses as they are getting aged and tend to suffer with more health issues than before. Authorities are forced to take care of all expenses as they were part of national development.
To mitigate this effect, policies should be designed to expand the retirement age, so that the old population could be part of the nation building for more years, this improves the productive life of old people generation and benefit the economy of the country. For example, Canadian government encourages old people to participate in workforce of the nation, as Australia also copied the thought, implementing programmes to include elders. This has positive impact on the mental health of the people.
To conclude, even though the standard of living and developments in health sector helps in increased life expectancy, there are challenges government faces to manage the expenses inclined with this, some changes in planned polices could resolve the issues and help to attain a healthy workforce.