General Chat

If I recall correctly, retirement age for the OAP was set for 18 months prior to the average age at death. Now as a Nation, we are living a lot longer, so yes, the State Retirement age does need to be increased. Either that, or we will have to pay more in NI.

What has irritated me is the acceleration in closing the male/female gap in retirement age. Having thought I'd be able to draw my OAP at 63 and a few months, it came as a shock when I realised that it would much, much closer to my 65th birthday.

But what it boils down to is that isn't enough money in the Pot!!

If you are approaching retirement age, and don't wish to, there is nothing to stop you carrying on working in your current position. It is against the law for an employer to discriminate on the grounds of age and force retirement on you.

I have to say we have had a great time since we retired, OH a few years before me as he took early retirement and me eleven years ago. I enjoyed my work until the last year or so but always thought there was more to life than work. However, we were both lucky in that we both had good pensions to add to the DSS pension.

When i left school in the early 60.s could have gone into any job .my Dad wanted me to go into police .wasnt for me .so many trades about then .but over the yrs manufacturing factorys have closed & we buy from abroad. times have changed .some good some bad.All i think is if our talented people in this country were given a chance young & old .to work & then retire at an age when they can enjoy their lives.work till 67 is to old .we only have one life . interesting to see how other people feel Thanks

Thanks, they are great kids, their older brother started uni, decided it was not for him and left, got a job with an agency in Insurance and now, having changed companies once when he was head hunted is still working in insurance in a permanent job and has had a promotion, he is 23. He was job hunting just ahead of the start of the recession.

Ann, I take my hat off to them

Stan yes he is working and it pays his mortgage, but the government and school encourage these youngsters to go to uni and get a degree so that when they graduate they become pizza delivery drivers :-S :-S :-S
He has asked his management if they will sponsor him on a management course which they ahve said they might. He does try.

Actually youngest grandson in another area is also a pizza delivery driver, he is a student at uni and sometimes he even works nights until 5am.

I worked down the pit all my life

Now I stack the shelves in a supermarket ,anyone can do it

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.

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.

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

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

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?

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

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.

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**.

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

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 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

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

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.