Who are all these ‘economically inactive’ 50 year olds

[Orangetapemeasure]

The government is trying to encourage 300000 or so ‘economically inactive’ 50+ year olds back to work. Who are these people and what do they do?
I can imagine some people in their 60s deciding to retire early, but I don’t know a single 50 year old who has or could afford to give up work. In fact I know several previously SAHM who are only launching their careers in their mid 40s. I’m mid 40s with a good 15-20 years left to work.
MN please enlighten me.

Its just another cohort to blame for Brexit and brexit's effects on the economy.

Folk wealthy enough to retire early, wont be interested in a tax break.... its just hot air.

Anyway, jobs market has eased, companies are starting to lay off staff... who else to blame?

When will this turn from possible carrots into actual sticks?

For people who are already retired, probably never. Those workers have gone. What's more likely to happen is raising the age at which private pensions can be taken, although I don't know if the Tories will go for that now or if it'll happen later on. It would be a balance between the aspirational middle aged section of their support who want the ability to retire early and the older, above state pension age part of the support base who understand that it's in their interests for more people to keep working.

Well this is the issue. Our benefits system (particualrly the state pension) relies on having a larger working base than the dependent one to fund benefits.

That ratio (the dependency ratio) is coming under serious strain as thr baby boom generation retire as they are literally a larger cohort than tbe two that follow.

But if people can afford not to work you can't make them work if they don't want to. If only we hadn't turned out back on a large pool of willing labour eh?

I know some mothers who just never went back to work after kids

I know several. Only one man, but several women most of whom have always been housewives and never worked. Husbands still working or recently retired, living on large pension or property investments.

To be fair, she could've said she had a ton of qualifications back when she was 16. No records are kept after a certain length of time.

When I was 50 I was working in a stressful job, supporting DC through through GCSEs and A levels, struggling through menopause (and there was no interest or support in that regard then) and looking after 2 sets of elderly, sick, demented parents. The majority of my colleagues were in the same boat. I know one person not in paid employment in her 50s, but she was, and still is, looking after 5 grand children so their parents can work.
It would be interesting to know if these unemployed 50 year olds are really just doing nothing.

Private pensions are only one of the pots though. Most financially savvy people will have Isa's, premium bonds, rental income, other investments and possibly even redundancy or inheritance to see them through a couple of extra years.
We're retiring this year but don't necessarily need to access our private pension for a good few years. It's also tax efficient to use at least some savings.

I'm nearly 50 and am currently not working (but not claiming benefits either). I was made redundant last year and became ill. I already had one medical condition which made work difficult (and I suspect was the main reason for the redundancy), now I have two. I'm currently living off savings and if I am still too ill to work when they run out then my partner will support me although I would not be happy about this as I have always been financially independent. I realise that I am privileged to have savings and a partner that earns enough for me not to work at the moment, but I'd rather be well and working.

I could work now, but it would need to be a job where I can work from home and pick the hours I work so that I can work when I am feeling up to it plus I have a lot of medical appointments to manage. I can't be doing with the hassle of that at the moment - imagine getting a new job and then immediately asking for time off to attend a medical appointment 50 miles away. AFAIC it's none of the government's business why I'm not working and if the NHS worked properly I would have been seen by now and might even have been well enough to return to work. Perhaps I am not typical of the economic inactives but I have one friend who is also unable to work for health reasons (because the NHS messed up an operation and she's having to have multiple ops to fix it) and a couple of friends in their early 60s who used to do physical jobs and ahave cut their hours because they aren't up to it any more.

Yes, sure, but the government can't prevent people from using their own income or assets that they can access any time. The most they can do is make some of those investments less attractive, as is happening with BTL.

There are obviously people who retire early who don't need a private pension to do it, but there are also some who would have to stay in work if they couldn't access theirs, and they'll be the easiest prospective retirees to target. So that's going to be what happens. It won't prevent all early retirement, but it will prevent some.

I'm 63 and not working nor in poor health. I'd like to work but frankly sick of the bullshit in the workplace. I apply for jobs but get no response - even a "no thanks" would be something lol.

I'm also quite picky - I have another income source so thinking very carefully about income tax implications too. I have a full NI record.

It's tricky because I feel I should be working - I don't have GCS to look after either so no excuse!

Even the volunteering I've applied for has not come to fruition yet. Everywhere seems so inefficient about basic admin.

No way are we going back to work. Decided to retire early due to a few bereavements, both family and friends, some in their 50s some in early 60s. DH family rarely live beyond 70. We wanted to have a retirement where we were fit enough (and alive) to enjoy it. Employers had moved goalposts on both our pensions so when we left at 57 we got about 8k a year less than we would have had the rules not changed. There was the possibility of more changes to our detriment in future. We live a frugal life and money is spent on doing things rather than having things. Eg we go on holiday but wear the same things as 10 year ago. Being less consumerist is definitively very freeing

Hehe.

But I think it's sort of an intra boomer thing too. If you're mid to late 70s, as the oldest boomers are, you might well feel it's not in your interests for the youngest ones, and remember there are boomers not yet 60, to be able to retire now. Which I think might be why we're seeing more pull up the drawbridge content from the likes of the Telegraph. People born at the tail end of that generation still form quite a big demographic bulge.

That is true.

But as a Xennial I have little sympathy with either camp TBH. My cohort will be bearing the tax paying burden for benefits and healthcare for decades to come and have little prospect of retiring before our late sixties ( and proper lol at mentions of investments and second properties!)

Pretty much me, i'm not that bothered about working as i ve loads to do plus don't really need too but i did go through a stage of applying, even volunteering and got no where.

Employers simply do not want to take on older employees, they don't even want existing ones which is one reason i was made redundant, shortly after around 100 of us went, they started a graduate recruitment programme.

Still not going back to work.

Yesterday we had a lovely day, drove ten miles to a local ish asparagus farm, chatted at length with the owner, bought some award winning pies that had been made in the village on the way back called into a riverside pub for lunch, came home DH cooked dinner for us all and it was all in all a lovely day.

Work pah, no thanks.

Sorry meant to post this as context.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/05/11/mel-stride-back-to-work-income-tax-2p-cut/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-onward-journey

@DoorstoManual that sounds like a nice day out but can you really do that sort of thing for days/weeks/months without getting bored and needing something more intellectually challenging?

Work isn't intellectually challenging for a lot of people - may jobs are really boring. If a person can opt out of that and still financially support themselves, why wouldn't they?
I've never understood the pic that having your days directed by an employer is somehow more intellectually rewarding that the freedom to do what you want.

Agree. So many bullshit non-jobs.
Why would you if you didn't have to?

We have a few at work they took voluntary redundancy
finically can get at pensions at 55
most if them have come to or not far off the end of there mortgage
a combination of no mortgage and kids off there hands
most happy to have more frugal lifestyle in return for not working

There are plenty of ways to keep yourself intellectually challenged without having a job.

But for a lot of people it is - and many jobs are not boring. If you're in one then it's time to look for a new one.

Part time for me would be the best option - the intellectual challenge of work (which for me includes managing teams and projects), the satisfaction of the pay cheque at the end of the month and the connection with others outside my normal sphere of friendships and acquaintances, coupled with the freedom to pursue other interests on my 2 days off.

Most people do not have intellectually challenging jobs.

The shortages and jobs i was sent were in social care, driving/delivery, i have a background in IT, Telecomms and PM, the social care ones did interest me but you have to use your own car, with very poor mileage and travel rates (not too mention it's still a NMW job) so i damage my car using it for their work but i have to bare the cost to repair it? err no.

I really don't understand.

If people want to retire and can, it leaves more boring and/or intellectually stimulating jobs for people who want them to have them.

If retirees left retirement you'd have more competition for the boring and/or stimulating jobs so you might not have had that intellectually stimulating job to apply for in the first place.