General Chat

I just wondered .what people make of the age of retirement .going up ??
I think Men & Women Should retire at 60 That means All .politions .TV & Radio presenters This country needs a big wake up call .give younger people a chance of work give them a future !!!
our goverment should be looking after good honest folk who have worked & made contributions in this country
working to 67yrs old is awfull .no life left .
anyone got an opnion on this Thanks

I agree with you Barbra.

My husband retires next year at 65 and I wouldn't like to think he had to work another 2 years. It would have been better if he could have retired even earlier (but we couldn't afford it).

We have both had trouble with joints and have both had two knee replacements each lately and I'm sure that although some people are fit and well and able to do lots of things in their late 60's there are other people whose health will mean they will find it difficult to enjoy their well earned retirement.

I can understand that everyone will have to contribute more to their pension (we are all living longer after all) but the longer older people hang on to jobs then the less jobs there will be for the younger generation.

I think it would be a good idea if kids in their last year at school spent one day a week with local firms just to get an idea of what working life is like and what would be expected of them. It would be just as much of an education as a day at school.

Kath. x

sorry but i would like to work beyound 65, i feel i'm still of use or will be then, gives me a purpose to life, love my work, don't want to be sat at home waiting for my wooden overcoat.

I can understand people not wanting to give up work if they are fit and well but there are lots of things you can do without taking on paid employment that could go to a younger person.

I have two friends who are both well into their 80's and they both work 4 full days a week at the local hospice. Yes, it is only washing and ironing (something there are few volunteers to do), but it gets them both out of the house, they meet lots of people at the hospice and are doing a worthwhile job into the bargain.

Kath. x

I feel that people should have a choice of continuing working as long as they want to but I agree that forcing people to work until they are at least 67 is not right. Maybe it would have been OK if they'd put it to 65, I can see that everyone continuing to draw a pension at 60 is putting the financial situation under too much pressure but 65 would be enough. Keeping people working after they no longer want to you end up with a disaffected work force and no jobs for younger people.

OH would like to work beyond 65 and he can. Him staying in work longer will make no difference to youth unemployment as they aren't qualified to do what he does anyway (bit complicated to explain).

The country cannot afford to pay pensions at the current retirement age, thanks to Labour and the unions. I should be retired officially on Friday but my date has been delayed by 19 months.

The original plan was to equalise male/female retirement ages to 65. The maths soon ruled that out as the population is living longer.

Financial hindsight is a wonderful thing, people don't like enforced change but sometimes we have to bite the bullet.

Sue

That will, of course be true of a lot of jobs Sue, But there will be places where when the one at the top retires people can move up and then unskilled workers could come in at the bottom.

I feel sorry for people who, like you were expecting to retire then had that date moved. I would have been really fed up if it had happened to me eleven years ago as I had had enough of my job and didn't feel it was going anywhere. I suppose people now having to work until age 67 will have a few years to get used to the idea. My daughter is one of them but, as her OH is 9 years older than her they have made provision a long time ago for her to be able to leave early. (even without the DSS pension).

In my experience it´s just making matters worse for over 55s(for example) who can´t find work, however willing they may be.
Very few employers are interested in taking on an older person.
By all means if someone wants to carry on working, allow them to do so, but for the rest, retirement at 60 would seem reasonable for jobseekes. After all it´s only a matter of exchanging Jobseekers Allowance for retirement pension.
I know so many people in the 55-65 age bracket who don´t live to draw their pensions.

I retired at 50 had a year off but now work 15 hours a week ,I'm 65 in a few weeks time but plan to carry on working I'ts not just for the money,I get to meet a lot of people

I think .people who say that they want to work beyond retirement age .are selfish . when you have worked from 16-17yrs of age .you should be ready to enjoy your life .& retire .lets teach young people skills .while you are fortunate to be working .show them your experiances & get them skilled so the industries will have a new generation of workers!! .to many youngsters have no prospects .. we could feel we have done what we can & put something back into society .There are so many charitys crying out for volunteers , retired people have so much to offer to prove they are still needed & worth the life experiances they can pass on .driving .shopwork computer experiance .c,a,b .the list is endless
I suppose one thing that i feel radio & TV people work a long time beyond their retirement yrs .& politicians .I will leave this on & come back later Barbra Thank you for your input x

Please, I don't want to rock the boat here, but for me, I could not retire early enough. There was so much more I wanted to do, than work.
Dont' get me wrong, I had to work most of the time during my 20's30's and 40's, and always had some sort of 'little' job, when having the children.
As I neared my 50's, I took the plunge and did it, though I did not get any pension, private or state, until I was 60.
I am not saying that at times I could not have done with earning a wage, but we managed. All the troops had left home, so there was only the OH and myself, and we got through.
For me, it was ideal, and it worked. But, I fully understand that it would not do for everyone.

Julia in Derbyshire

I dont think I'm selfish ,there are jobs out there iff you want one

perhaps they get a lot more in benifits

P.S I've done charity work ,out of the 8people there I was the only one not being paid

I did the same as Stan. been doing the things I could never do whilst Grafting.Regarding letting younger people have older peoples jobs? not really,some of them need the cash and cant afford to retire.what it needs is for the Government to get Firms to give Apprenticeships (As used to be) and subsidise them, for the same length of time,and conditions there were then. And as we are the Main Shareholders in the RBOS. Should insist that money should be lent to small Businesses to enable them to expand and take on more workers.Those who do not wish to work should be made to do the work that "Volenteers do.if not ,no money.there are too many people who think the Country owes them a living,Its time they had a look at the Harsh reality of lazing about.**M**.

Like Julia, I started work at 17 & apart from taking 6 months off with each of my 2 children, have always worked & paid full contributions, even though some of the jobs were so poorly paid I couldn´t really justify the expense.
I retired at 60 & had 20% deducted from my company pension because in their eyes I retired early. (& yes, it was one of the much maligned public sector pension schemes)The rules had been changed after I signed up & the retirement age had been changed to 65 for both sexes. No real problem with that except that I contracted to retire at 60.
I´m so glad that I left when I did, despite the loss of part of my pension, because I know that healthwise there is no way I could have coped with the stress of my job for another 5 years.

Because I have a private pension I'll loose a big chunk when I reach 65
Don't forget I paid for that pension

Stan you say there are jobs around for those who want them. Why am I often reading then about the youngsters that have applied for many many jobs (I include my 22 year old grandson in this, a graduate who, although working as a full time pizza delivery driver is desperate for a 'real' job.) who don't even get acknowledgements let alone an interview?

Wisechild, I too could not cope with the stress of my job anymore. At that time, I had had my only son (3 girls also), in hospital for a long period of time, after a road accident. He was firstly on life support, but eventually was sent to a rehabilitation hospital for a while. Initially I was off work, hospital visiting, but when he came home, the stress was too much.
My job entailed wages calculation for the printing trade, a specialist field, aswell as Vat returns, Purchase Ledger, and all thing monetary in the company. I just could not concentrate, and to be honest, didn't want to.
I was also glad that I had left work when it came to going through the Menopause, a rather hellish experience. And these last 51'2 years have also been a rather hellish experience, healthwise.
All in all though, I have treasured these extra years I have had at home.
Julia in Derbyshire

Sorry Ann ,but he is working and full time
We all have to do jobs we dont wan't to

At least he's not one of the millions that don't want to

I hope he finds the job he deserves soon

It is also down to the type of job one does surely, an office worker may well be able to do the same job at 67 as they did at 60...or 20, but a bricklayer probably won't. As a nurse/carer one probably doesn't have the physical strength necessary. So unless one can find a less physical role within your profession
you are then competing in an overloaded jobs market (150 applicants for 1 job is not unusual).

The other problem, as I see it, with raising the pension age in a time of high unemployment is that you are in danger of leaving a whole generation of youngsters out of work ( well 1 million of them so far) or at least unable to enter skilled jobs, and thus limiting even more the amount of money that will be available for their pensions in the future.

I spent 10 years collecting rent arrears for the largest Local Authority in the country, but it wasn´t the tenants who caused the stress, it was the b****y management.
As an example, this time last year they asked for volunteers for redundancy, so a friend applied. She finally got a finishing date last month, but only after making a great fuss. Every time she asked for a date, she was fobbed off, so for 12 months she & her family have been unable to make any plans.
I was never so glad in my life to get out of it.