Young people will be hit hardest by successive governments’ failure to focus on financial and societal challenges caused by an ageing population, a House of Lords report has suggested.

They will need to plan and prepare to work longer and save more from a much earlier age, the economic affairs committee said.

The report also found that the crisis in adult social care “remains a scandal” which needs to be addressed urgently.

Committee chair Lord Wood of Anfield told the BBC it was a “struggle to find where in government” there was a focus on ageing and the “transformational effects” it was going to have on people.

“Ageing is something that we’re just watching happening”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, adding: “We know that adaptation is the way forward”.

Policies governments have used to address the impact of declining fertility and rising life expectancy in the UK – raising the state pension age or increasing immigration for example – were not adequate solutions on their own, the report said.

Getting more people in their 50s and 60s to stay in or return to work “is key”, the committee said, and the government must prioritise incentives to do so.

It found that while age discrimination may reduce the number of over 50s working, it heard evidence that its most damaging form may be self-directed, with older workers mistaken about the extent they faced and then limiting their own decisions.

It also said an ageing population will need more care workers, leaving fewer workers for other parts of the economy.

There is “widespread ignorance” of how much it costs to retire, it said, and the government should consider an education campaign – as well as finding out if the UK’s financial services sector is equipped to provide for the population as it ages.

Lord Wood said that the government and financial services industry needs to devise “more innovative ways of getting younger people to think about lives frankly they can’t conceive of at the moment – when they’re in their eighties and early nineties.”

“There’s a long time for them to be financially planning for at a time when we know young people are doing less financial planning,” he added.

“Raising the state pension age, which saves the government money, but increases pensioner poverty as many people have already stopped working by their sixties, is a red herring.

“To successfully confront this challenge, the approach to financial management of today’s and tomorrow’s young people will need to change.”

India and Oman are aiming to operationalise their recently signed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) within the next three months, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday, signalling a faster rollout than several past trade pacts, PTI reported.The India–Oman free trade agreement was signed on December 18. Under the CEPA, Oman has offered zero-duty access on more than 98 per cent of its tariff lines, covering 99.38 per cent of India’s exports to the Gulf country. At present, these products attract import duties ranging from 5 per cent to as high as 100 per cent.

“All major labour-intensive sectors will get nil duty,” Goyal said, listing gems and jewellery, textiles, leather, footwear, sports goods, plastics, furniture, agricultural products, engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and automobiles as key beneficiaries.On the Indian side, New Delhi has offered tariff concessions on 77.79 per cent of its total tariff lines, or 12,556 product categories, which together account for 94.81 per cent of India’s imports from Oman by value.“The Oman minister and I have discussed that this agreement, we will try to operationalise within three months,” Goyal told reporters, contrasting the timeline with Oman’s earlier trade deal with the US, which was finalised in 2006 but implemented only in 2009.Highlighting investment opportunities, Goyal said sectors such as steel, energy, education and healthcare held strong potential for Indian companies in Oman, particularly resource-linked industries. He pointed to a large green steel project in the pipeline and growing interest in converting energy into green hydrogen or green ammonia for exports.“There is a lot of interest because they have large land banks,” he said, adding that opportunities also exist in marble processing, battery manufacturing, education and healthcare.Goyal said Omani businesses were keen to partner with Indian firms, citing interest from an Omani dairy company in forming a joint venture with Amul. He added that Oman’s sovereign wealth fund and companies had been invited to explore investments in India.