1A major new government report warns that the population of this country is ageing considerably faster than any previous official plan had ever predicted.
2Within the next twenty years, roughly one person in four will be over the age of sixty five, according to the report.
3This dramatic demographic shift will inevitably put enormous additional pressure on hospitals, residential care homes, and the already strained national pension system.
4The report therefore urges ministers to raise the official retirement age gradually and carefully over the course of the coming decade.
5It also calls for generous new tax breaks specifically designed to encourage younger working families to consider having more children.
6However, critics immediately argue that asking people to work for longer is deeply unfair on those employed in physically demanding manual jobs.
7Builders, nurses, and factory workers, for example, are frequently unable to continue safely in their demanding roles past a certain age.
8The authors openly admit there are no easy answers, but insist that doing nothing is simply not an option.
9Several other wealthy countries facing exactly the same problem have already experimented with generous childcare support and flexible retirement schemes.
10Parliament is expected to debate the report's controversial findings in detail when its members return from their long summer break in September.