For many years now, we have all been planning for our retirement age of 65.
But could that all be about to change?
This is because a review of the default retirement age, which allows employers to force you to retire at 65, is to be brought forward by a year, the government has said.
The review had been expected in 2011 but will now take place next year.
Currently our employers can require us retire at 65, regardless of our circumstances; but 1.3 million of us work beyond the retirement age, and many more say we would if we were allowed to by our employer.
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Angela Eagle, the minister for pensions and the ageing society, said that the review will happen next year “to respond to changing demographic and economic circumstances.”
She said it was time to look again at the default retirement age saying:
‘Some people prefer to take early retirement, others prefer to keep working. We want to give older people flexible retirement options.
‘The government is responding to the changed economic landscape. The different circumstances today – for businesses, and for individuals coming up to retirement – suggest that an earlier review is appropriate.
‘As Britain’s demographics change it is sensible that we have the debate on what works for business and individuals. The retirement laws need to reflect modern social and economic circumstances.’
- Review is welcomed
The move was welcomed by age charities and trade unions, and the TUC’s general secretary Brendan Barder said:
‘It cannot be right that an employer can sack someone simply for being too old. Employees should have choice; neither forced by employers to give up work, nor forced by inadequate pensions into working longer than they should.’
Michelle Mitchell, charity director for Age Concern and Help the Aged, said:
‘The government should immediately put a stop to an arbitrary and unfair rule which stops people from working, simply because of their age.
‘Older workers make a huge contribution to the economy and will have the skills and experience needed to boost recovery as we come out of recession.
‘Many older people want to be able to continue to work beyond 65. For some this is because they need to boost their pensions or simply pay the bills, but for many it is because they love their jobs and see no need to stop working when they can still do them well.’
- Discriminatory and unfair
However, some organisations said that ministers had effectively now signalled an end to the default retirement age.
Katja Hall of the CBI, the business lobbying organisation said:
“Some people can happily work in their existing job beyond the age of 65, but this is not possible for all occupations, and companies with small numbers of staff have particular problems adapting jobs to the needs of older workers. No-one has yet suggested a workable alternative to the default retirement age.
Having a default retirement age helps staff begin the process of deciding when it is right to retire, and helps firms plan ahead with more confidence.’
The CBI also said that its research had suggested that 81% of us who asked our employer to keep working had been allowed to do so.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission already argues that a compulsory retirement age is discriminatory and unfair.
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What do you think of a possible change in the retirement age? Should it stay at 65 or should we be given the option to work longer?
Vote in our poll below!
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July 20th, 2009 at 10:31 am
I’m 42 and I only want to work until I’m 43! The reality is that I will have to work until I am 65…I don’t want to but I don’t see any other way out.
July 20th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I want to retire as soon as possible. The reality is I wont be able to afford to. I have paid enough into the coffers of incompetent and corrupt politicians and want whats due.
My private pension is worth next to nothing and the DWP have lost important documentation which will effect a state pension and are reluctant to accept blame.
My wife now has to work an extra year missing out on retiring at 60 by a few months.
Keeping older people in work will increase unemployment. Responsible young people with families to feed, clothe and house are finding it difficult enough to survive in this despicably run country without the knowledge that jobs are being retained by doddery should be pensioners. The time should come when you stop working and start to live and do the things you always wanted to do but had to work. No one should work until they drop just to survive.
July 20th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
This is just another example of people being used as worker beez by the time you have worked until you are about to drop.
The only people who want to work past 65 are people who just carnt afford not to work
to me the whole thing is a step backwards.People need to retire so kids leaving school can go into worth while jobs.’Wake up people’.
July 20th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
I actualy dont have a problem with working a little longer as long as I am healthy. I would sooner do that than be paying even more taxes and living on some rubbish pension where you are desperatly wondering how on earth you are going to keep warm, or repair that missing slate on the roof.
July 20th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
I wanted to retire at 65 but Gordon Brown stolen my pension so I will HAVE to work on.
July 20th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
I am still trying to work out why everyone feels so hard done by about this.
In times gone past you worked until you were financially secure enough to stop working, which for most people was never. In the post-war period we have come to believe that a long and happy retirement was a God-given right, which it isnt. We have also come to believe that when we want something someone should create a facility by which we can buy it today rather than save for it. I believe our whole ethos is wrong, and we cannot blame any one Government or organisation for this – we have allowed the culture to develop this way as it suits us, the general public, for this to be the case. I am no lover of Labour and far less this Government, but I have no illusions either that when my friend buys a new car he cant afford it is he who is prolonging this crazy credit culture not the Government.
It’s a hard lesson to learn but who ever guaranteed our pensions would be worth what we hoped? Did they have a crystal ball with which to predict who would be hit by any economic downturn or when it might happen? No more than we do, and we could not expect such. We all want safer roads, better hospitals, better health care etc etc, but how do we expect these increasingly costly items to be paid for? Perhaps if we were a little harder working and a little less demanding our economy would actually be in a better state. And FYI i work a six day week – i dont want to but that is the life i find myself with and in accepting it i am happier with my lot!
July 20th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
To James,
I feel so happy for you, that you are happy to work forever, and dont expect anything back from your taxes!
Maybe you should open your eyes and look at what your taxes are really funding though!!
Maybe Culture changed because people are getting sick of the governments ‘Robin hood’ culture!
Are you seriously trying to tell me that all those highly paid ‘intelligent’ people that we pay for, had no idea about the current recession??
And ok your friend may buy an expensive car which he cannot afford, and on that I agree. But many of the people who have come off the worst in all this are the ‘savers’.
The ones who were trying to plan for the future!
You say ‘It’s a hard lesson to learn but who ever guaranteed our pensions would be worth what we hoped?’
No one, so what are you suggesting people do, just try and feel happy about losing it???
‘Did they have a crystal ball with which to predict who would be hit by any economic downturn or when it might happen’
Thats what they are paid for mate!!
Mike.
July 21st, 2009 at 12:47 pm
All my life I’ve lived with the expectation that I would retire at 65. It’s almost here and now the rug is being pulled from under my feet.
I believe we should all be able to work on if we want, to but no one should be forced to work on, and that means paying an adequate pension at 65. OK the individual has responsibility to make some provisions for themselves (we have of course all paid for our pensions via National Insurance and taxes) but before we know it working on will become the norm and then how long before the age at which you can draw the state pension is increased again?
Also what about the labourers of this world. They ruin their health working in poor conditions, perhaps outside in all weathers, and are exposed to all sorts of noxious substances. Should they even be encouraged to work on? We should be giving them a medal for sticking out to 65.
I think we’re being taken for a ride again. Very few people actually stop work when they retire, they just change their status to carer or nanny, some do voluntary work and others provide for themselves via allotments or handyman jobs.
The so called clever people running this country have conned us left right and centre but where we go from here I don’t know.
July 21st, 2009 at 6:19 pm
i am very lucky in the respect i have a civil service pension, i paid in to it for years, now the goverment cann,t change the terms of agreement so guess what they try and privatise the prison i work at and get rid of my pension rights, then they say all prisons will be privatised and then all these prisons will be run by prisoners because there are not enough staff in there to police it, fact 11 of the bottom 12 performing prisons in the country are private. so forget trying to save for a pension, the goverment just want you to pay in the system then die the day after you retire, they say we can not affoerd all these pensions (private and state) but keep taking your tax. these people are corrupt, they keep finding money for there expenses (man did that one drop out the newspapers quick) get this lot out and forget the tories as well, its all going to come to a sticky end especially with this lot in
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
As a woman, I was counting on retiring at 60. I feel hard done by because – the government has now decided to hold onto my pension money until I’m 65. Work it out. That’s £92 (I think) x 52 x 5 years. That’s a hell of a lot of money that the government has taken from me – and millions of others…
Yes – I feel hard done by……………….. for want of a better phrase.
July 22nd, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Bernie, your forgetting something, Its £92 x 52weeks x 5years + 5years extra of you paying taxes!!!
The answer to that sum will be a whole lot more!
July 27th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I think there should be a choice based on how long a person has worked. The Government have now changed the pension age so I can’t receive my pension until I’m 65. Having worked f/t for 35 years, to not have a choice, rather be forced by Government in extending the age, seems very unfair to people in this position. Perhaps it shoudl not be across the board, but dependent on a person’s working years, that would surely be a fairer method.
July 27th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
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September 10th, 2009 at 8:41 am
my points of views are:-
yup, we have paid enough NI and that should have been invested for our retirement. If the government stopped or placed individual NI contributions into a bank and we were not allowed to touch it, till we retire, we would individually be better off than £92.00 a week which is what they give you.
Private pensions, don’t see the point in paying twice for a pension that you have already accumulated with the start of paying NI in the 1st pension.
Government are paid to know and govern the economy, failure in the real world of an individual employee would be sacked for not meeting the job expectation.
If a person wishes to work passed 65 they should be allowed, its no different than if a person wants to work, they should not be penalised for it either way. But obviously, if the don’t contribute to a pension through NI then they shouldn’t get one. Harsh but true. There’s is a big difference to can’t and won’t work and those shouldn’t be penalised. But you get what you pay for. I have worked all my life from the age of 15 and have contributed by NI, and had a joint private pension with my husband and now divorced get no income from that pension when I retire as the divorce court stated I was young enough to get one in my own right. Now I have a rare genetic disorder that shows it self after the age of 30 that I didn’t know about till I was taken seriously ill, and I won’t get anything from the private pension and can’t work and will receive minimal pension from government that I have contributed into for years. I am 48 and worked full time from the age of 17 and part time from 15.
I wish that my NI contributions should have been held in bank gaining interest for my future like any other insurance policy. This would have been fairer.
September 10th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Retirement is a privilege not a right, if you have paid into the system then you can reasonably expect the Government to honour the original agreed retirement date & pay accordingly. However individuals should not be forced to stop working just because they reach a certain age, likewise companies should not be forced to carry deadwood for fear of unnecessary litigation, so it is a tough call. As we increasing live to an older age it is reasonable to suggest there is some flexibility in the system, the only reasonable solution is to increase the compulsory retirement age. I am now 45 & have 20 years or so to provide for retirement, I see this as my responsibility not the Government’s. There have been options to contract out etc since the 80′s which give control over the earning related element of your pension (SERP’s), so best to take professional advice now before it’s too late!
September 10th, 2009 at 11:04 am
I am 65 and have worked since I was 14 and paid all my stamps plus AVC’s in the 80′s which has boosted my pension + I am a widow. But when I receive my tax code from the HMRC I am advised that because I am over the Tax allowance I still owe 2K. How can that be?
I have paid all my duties whilst I was working and I am still working as Self-employed person (Which I still have to pay tax) So I am owing two lots of Tax at 65!!
This really does not seem fair to me as I can see myself working forever as I cannot afford to not work and also I am still paying for others who do not work!!
July 10th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
I can’t see myself working past 50 but who knows what will happen. It’s just as well I didn’t bother following my mates into the markets.