Over 50 and not working by choice. Would a ‘mid-life MOT’ tempt you back?

[PuzzledObserver]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64083802

The phrase “not on your nelly” comes to mind.

There are reasons - good ones - why I retired early. They still apply, I’m not bored, I don’t feel my life lacks meaning, and finances are OK. So I’m finding difficult to think of a reason to rejoin the workforce.

How about you?

Don't feed it.

@KnittedCardi The people I know who have done this will not live into their nineties. Loads of my working-class friends have had parents die in their seventies or younger. And paying for healthcare was never a choice anyway for myself and friends. I am still working. But I totally understand their attitude of enjoying the life they have now rather than working another 10 - 15 years all so you can have a better care home for the last few years of your life. That is no way to live.

Pre CV19, they wanted the oldies to retire to free up jobs for the youngsters

Hmmm, how has that worked out? Oh wait……….😳

I still work past retirement age through choice though but what they pay me, it’s easy money in my eyes.

I drink a lot of tea in work 👍

Also helps build up my works pension 👍

In my company, we can’t get enough youngsters wanting to do Engineering hence if we retired, who would replace us as there are not enough youngsters and the Public would moan and groan when things started to grind to a halt

No win situation

I reckon 18 months to when I retire but my boss has got no interest at all from youngsters wanting to do the job

We would pay them to do day release plus pay for 4 years for the Engineering course😳

Smile, take the money and drink another cup of tea, works for me 👍

Err, no.... my husband has been planning his financial affairs for 25 years to allow us to retire in our mid 50s!

But lots of people don't bother saving for their retirement and DO expect the state to pick up the bill.

I will retire early and if I am lucky to last many many years and eventually spend all my pensions and savings I will be no different to those that never saved in the first place. Why would I take the risk of working and working to save and never spend it.

If I could access the healthcare I need from the NHS I would definitely rejoin the workforce.

I think they need to look at people with long Covid and the like and help them regain their health so that they can work again.

I do know that tax is paid on pensions, but does anyone know how it compares to the amount of tax a working person pays? I presume it's a lot less, whichis what this whole thing is about. People are retiring and not paying the same amount of tax they'd be paying if they were still working.

Nope . I stopped working as a nurse when I was 48 , I’d only ever been very pt . I got an email during covid about getting my registration back and declined that offer and will still be declining . I’m mid 50s and enjoying myself .

I thought the baby boomers were selfishly occupying jobs that the younger people needed?
Then, when they retire, they are selfishly hoarding assets or lazy or malingering.
Can't win.

If in doubt, it's always the fault of 'an ageing population.' No-one could be expected to foresee that people get older, could they?

Pensioners have the same tax free allowance as working people, anything else is taxed at the same rates. There aren't preferential rates.

If you need cleaners and carers you will also get attendance allowance. You can remortgage your house to pay for a new boiler etc. Adaptations are rarely that expensive. At most a stairlift, an armchair that lifts you up, a walk-in shower, and minor things like grab rails and raised toilet seat.

People are retiring and not paying the same amount of tax they'd be paying if they were still working

Probably because in a lot of cases their incomes are smaller - mine has more than halved, so of course I'm paying less tax than I was when I was working.

@CurlyhairedAssassin People retired due tend to have a lower income than people working. So they will pay less tax overall. But the proportion of tax rates, tax free allowance is exactly the same as if they were working. A pension for tax purposes is treated like a salary.

Spot on, @MissWired

My hubby was made redundant at 58, and could not get another job in ANY field, despite years of retail management experience, and an engaging personality. He was either asked about his age at the miniscule amount of interviews he got, (which is illegal), or his age could easily be deduced from application forms which asked for what school he attended and when, etc. He eventually became self-employed in another area altogether.
IMHO, ageism still exists big time in our society, and is maybe the only -ism that hasn't been taken seriously AT ALL.
And if the government want him or me to attend some poxy "MOT", and go back to being employees, they can piss off

I will retire early and if I am lucky to last many many years and eventually spend all my pensions and savings I will be no different to those that never saved in the first place. Why would I take the risk of working and working to save and never spend it

To give you choice in your old age. The NHS and social care is in such a state already, because previous generations retired too early, and didn't save enough. Pensions already cost 50% of the welfare budget. At what point does that become unsustainable? I would suggest perhaps we are already at that point??

I pay for a cleaner and a gardener due to reduced mobility and have food deliveries. Paying for these things is helped by the fact that I'm still working.

@KnittedCardi Choice? So you want people to work until 68 so they can pay for private healthcare and a better care home when very elderly?
Private healthcare is very expensive as you get older. Few people could afford it anyway. And who wants to spend years saving for the last few years of your life?

And it is not in a dire state because people retired too early. The well off will continue retiring early. In 2010 the NHS was judged the best healthcare system in the world. What do you think happened since?
The NHS is in the state it was in last time a Conservative government was in for a long time. We have seen all this before.

Absolutely no chance.

If I can't work for myself, it's not happening.

GrasstrackGirl

"It's not difficult to get a pension for that amount, my DH's pension will be around £35K p/a once he retires, he could retire mid 50's but I don't think he will"

In local government or the NHS you would need to work for 40 years at a salary of £70k to retire at 60. If you retired at 55 you'd get 20% less pension. Maybe you think that's "not difficult" but I disagree. Most people do not earn as highly as your DH, how can you possibly not be aware of this fact?

I agree.

And oddly people always talk about saving as if you will live until your 90s. A lot of people never make the state retirement age.

Having worked full time since I was 16 I am not prepared to work until state retirement on the off chance I might have a few more pounds to fund a care home. I suspect if it came to it the state will just take my home anyway so why bother.

Oh god, not this again. No, it wasn't. It was judged the most cost efficient, with universal access, quality and outcomes were never as good as other systems.

No government, in any country actually, nor the next generation, can afford to pay for the already retired, let alone the next generation of retirees, particualrly if they retire early, who will soon outnumber those in work.

How does you generate the income to support all those retirees?

pensioners pay tax on the same basis as everyone else you get your annual allowance just over 12K then you pay tax on the rest, so basically the state pension around 9k is tax free and the first 3k of a private pension then you pay tax at 20, 40, 45 ,% on the res
The only difference is no NI unless working or self employed, ( have 35 years of contributions ie every year sinc I was 21 when I started working )

But the government does not pay people to retire early, they self fund that. If the government cared about that they would not have made it possible for people to cash in their pension pots in full. That led to a big increase in early retirement.

@CurlyhairedAssassin anybody with an income of over £13000 (approx) is going to be taxed on their income even if it's from a pension . Many people who are in their late 50s. will have been in the work place a long time as it was less popular to go to university years ago so they often started work earlier . My DH who retired at 59 had been working since he was 16. He still has to pay tax .