by Hazel Duffy
Government and employers are increasingly at odds on the topic of retirement. Ministers want men and women to be in work at least until they are 65 and then retiring on a decent pension on leaving work. The so-called 'national default retirement age' is being set at 65, with women gradually increasing to the same retirement age as men by 2020. This means that people still in work at 65 will have the right to ask that they be allowed work beyond 65 and employers will have the corresponding duty to consider seriously any such requests.
The reality, however, is that the number of people in full time work who are over 50 (the age at which 'older' seems to slip in) is shrinking. This is not always because employers want to push them out, although many older workers do not receive the same benefits as younger people. A survey for the Age Partnership Group found that only 17 per cent of employees aged over 50 had received training in the last 13 weeks compared with 29 per cent of those aged below 50.
A recently published ESRC research project on attitudes to retirement held by men and women aged 50 to 69 in five European countries found that married men in their early 50s often wanted more time at home with family; and that some long for the day when they can put their work behind them. Both men and women said they would like to work fewer hours.
...married men in their early 50s often wanted more time at home with family...
Meanwhile the efforts by governments to get employers to take on older workers had largely failed with the number of 'midlife' men and women in employment in all five countries (Britain, West Germany, Italy, Hungary, Norway) having declined steeply. The key factor as far as employees are concerned is that they want to have control over when they retire, whether before or after normal retirement age. "People who choose to retire early and those who opt to work beyond normal retirement age enjoy better quality of life than people who have had the decisions made for them", says Dr David Blane at Imperial College of Science Technology Medicine.
The Government, meanwhile, is planning changes in retirement and pension age in its own back yard. Ministers want to introduce changes across the pension schemes of civil servants and plans to raise the their retirement age from 60 to 65. The plans, predictably, have stirred up opposition from those who will be affected.
But many people do not want to stop work at the age when they would be expected to retire. A study by the Centre for Labour Market Studies in Leicester suggests that as people get nearer to retirement, some, at least, have reservations about life without a job. The researchers were able to interview 97 people, all nearing retirement age, who had been interviewed on leaving school in the early 1960s. Their working lives had turned out to be much more chequered than they had predicted as school leavers. This reflected in part reduction and changes in the engineering industry in Leicester although 28 per cent of those interviewed were still working in engineering. Those interviewed were mostly men since few of their female classmates leaving school at that time could be traced. The men mostly said they looked forward to retirement and some had made plans for how they would spend their time. But some wanted to go on working and were prepared to
by Hazel Duffy
Government and employers are increasingly at odds on the topic of retirement. Ministers want men and women to be in work at least until they are 65 and then retiring on a decent pension on leaving work. The so-called 'national default retirement age' is being set at 65, with women gradually increasing to the same retirement age as men by 2020. This means that people still in work at 65 will have the right to ask that they be allowed work beyond 65 and employers will have the corresponding duty to consider seriously any such requests.
The reality, however, is that the number of people in full time work who are over 50 (the age at which 'older' seems to slip in) is shrinking. This is not always because employers want to push them out, although many older workers do not receive the same benefits as younger people. A survey for the Age Partnership Group found that only 17 per cent of employees aged over 50 had received training in the last 13 weeks compared with 29 per cent of those aged below 50.
A recently published ESRC research project on attitudes to retirement held by men and women aged 50 to 69 in five European countries found that married men in their early 50s often wanted more time at home with family; and that some long for the day when they can put their work behind them. Both men and women said they would like to work fewer hours.
...married men in their early 50s often wanted more time at home with family...
Meanwhile the efforts by governments to get employers to take on older workers had largely failed with the number of 'midlife' men and women in employment in all five countries (Britain, West Germany, Italy, Hungary, Norway) having declined steeply. The key factor as far as employees are concerned is that they want to have control over when they retire, whether before or after normal retirement age. "People who choose to retire early and those who opt to work beyond normal retirement age enjoy better quality of life than people who have had the decisions made for them", says Dr David Blane at Imperial College of Science Technology Medicine.
The Government, meanwhile, is planning changes in retirement and pension age in its own back yard. Ministers want to introduce changes across the pension schemes of civil servants and plans to raise the their retirement age from 60 to 65. The plans, predictably, have stirred up opposition from those who will be affected.
But many people do not want to stop work at the age when they would be expected to retire. A study by the Centre for Labour Market Studies in Leicester suggests that as people get nearer to retirement, some, at least, have reservations about life without a job. The researchers were able to interview 97 people, all nearing retirement age, who had been interviewed on leaving school in the early 1960s. Their working lives had turned out to be much more chequered than they had predicted as school leavers. This reflected in part reduction and changes in the engineering industry in Leicester although 28 per cent of those interviewed were still working in engineering. Those interviewed were mostly men since few of their female classmates leaving school at that time could be traced. The men mostly said they looked forward to retirement and some had made plans for how they would spend their time. But some wanted to go on working and were prepared to switch to another employer if necessary. Some perhaps had little choice since a significant group did not have pensions or savings and did not own their home.
The research team says that a "flexible approach to retirement" is clearly needed. At the same time, they suggest, albeit tentatively, that "the transition to retirement is mediated by 'fantasy and 'reality'".