Education and its effects on survival, income and health of those aged sixty-five and over in the United Kingdom

Summary

We explore the effects of income and, additionally education on the income, self-reported health and survival of people aged sixty-five and over in order to identify benefits resulting from education which are omitted in the conventional analysis with its focus on labour income excluding employer contributions. We find, for men, that income after the age of sixty-five is significantly influenced by educational attainment and has a signficant effect on survival. Even after controlling for circumstances at age sixty-five or when first observed, we identify benefits discounted to age sixty-five of £170,000 for men with higher education qualifications as compared to those with minimal qualifications. However, similar effects are not observed for women.