To feel sorry for women having to work till they're 66

[lazylab]

I have 2 friends, one 60 the other 61 who are just so tired and worn out. The 60 year old works full time in a factory, she's totally shatttered at the end of her shift. Basically they're just desperate for retirement, but no chance of that till they're 66. Both these women are single, still paying mortgages, one of them earning fairly good money but the other is basically working just to live, can't afford luxuries or holidays etc. It's just soul destroying. These are just two examples of the plight of those affected by the changes to pension age.

Working full time as a young woman is definitely not the same once you hit 60, the body struggles to cope. I realise it's the same for men too, especially the ones doing physical jobs.
Sorry if it sounds like i'm moaning, but isn't life just shit for some people.

[ThatsNotMyMarmot]

I can't retire until I am 67 and my boss is an utter bastard. I have a friend who saved minimum 15% of every wage packet he has ever earned (even if he had to switch off the electricity) and he is sitting pretty now as a result. It's a bitter pill.

[Nowaynowjose]

Of course retirement age should be the same. That is absolutely part of equality. Not sure what babies has to do with 66 year old women tbh!
How about the physical toll carrying children has on the body? Don't want to go into detail, but having two children has definitely changed my body for the worse, problems which DH doesn't have. Which will never be fully recovered from. A lot of my friends have similar issues, so it's not just me. Surely (partly due to the childbearing issue) men as a whole are physically able to work longer at full capacity?

[kaitlinktm]

I don't feel sorrier for women than I do for men, and I don't feel sorrier for today's men and women in their 60s than I do for future generations. But I do still feel that until you are in your late 50s and early 60s doing a full time job, you can't really say how you will feel. I have loads less energy now than I did in my 40s and early 50s. I am sure that (medical breakthroughs excepted) future generations will feel the same, and they will be told the same thing by the younger generations.

I do worry for future generations and their old age.

[Cornettoninja]

Yippee. When can we women give the responsibility of growing new humans to men?

Well yes but that is directly contradicting years of rhetoric plus women on average live longer than men so it's not a drum to beat imho....

[dementedma]

the knock on effect is that there are fewer jobs for young people, due in part to older people not being able to step aside and needing to keep on working. My 63 year old friend works full time and is exhausted but has no other income. i am currently waiting for an interview where the current post holder is 70 (seriously) and he is stepping aside into the part time version of the post while a new FT takes over. If I get the post, at 53, I will be the youngest in the team!

[TittyGolightly]

The recent changes have been handled so badly. My mum returned to work 2 weeks after having me and paid in more than what was required by the govt to get her pension at 60. At 58 she found out she couldn't have it until she was 66. All those years of financial planning wipes out and new plans having to be made. (She's a WASPI)

My MIL is 6 months older than my mum. She stopped working when she married and hasn't worked for over 41 years. She got her full state pension at 60.

It stinks.

[DanyellasDonkey]

I'll be working till I'm 68 at the moment with every likelihood that it will keep on rising.

Yep - a nearly 70 year old is really going to give the best to teaching a class of infants

[SummerKelly]

Noway I was going to say the same thing. I have ongoing hip and back problems from pregnancy that cause me difficulties. In addition I pretty much work or look after DD all the time so I have very little downtime, which also leaves me exhausted. DD's dad left us, and whilst he doubled his salary since the time she was born, mine has reduced because I look after her. I have paid into a private pension when I can but that hasn't always been possible. I don't get much maintenance and when I have tried to get what I am entitled to it's got v nasty and I don't want to put DD through the hassle. Women are inevitably going to be less able to retire early on a private pension because of lower salaries and career breaks, which is why the whole thing is unequal in the first place.

[Lweji]

surely making people work till 66 and beyond will make jobs for young people and school leavers few and far between. There'd be a bigger jobs market for young ones if people retired earlier?

Yes, but you'll have a larger unproductive group which has to be paid by those in work.

[Lweji]

More sensible measures, and that have been argued for, would be for, say, over 50s to work less hours or in supportive roles.

[Iulia68]

Sick and tired of hearing mothers (and I am one; 3 kids; in full time work 25 yrs after 1st baby) using the excuse of motherhood for "lack of opportunities" and essentially saying "why should we works as long as men", all because we carried a baby for 9 months?
Parenting takes a lot more than the 9 months, fathers are as important as mothers and women should focus more on their careers and prospects when are young. Having a baby is not a passport for staying home for ever, only to moan years later that "we don't have prospects".
It is a lot harder to be a Mum, to work full time, without grandparents to help but raising wonderful kids and climbing "the ladder" for some decent pension/benefits (if lucky to live long enough to see them!).

[crazycatgal]

I'm 23 and can't really feel any sympathy since by the time I'm in my late 60s there probably won't be a state pension and i'll end up working until I drop.

[Needanewaura]

Yabu to say it's worse for women than men, having to work later in life. As a society we're going to have to plan our lives better, save more, change careers as we go through life. For example, older teachers becoming tutors or doing 1-1 support, police working in administrative roles or community engagement.

I'm not sure about how it will work for young people starting out though, and trying to get careers going.

[ReinettePompadour]

The lady at a nearby newsagents (small village) is 104 and still working. She was in the paper for her 100th saying she didn't think she could afford to retire. That's very sad although I do think some of it is that if she did retire she would fade very quickly and possibly not feel she has a purpose anymore so working keeps her going.

[Changebagsandgladrags]

I just can't help feeling that raising the pension age helps no-one. It means that people are forced to work longer, more than they are really able. I can't imagine travelling in on the tube every morning in rush hour at age 68. Not being able to get a seat, the heat in the summer...awful.

Then with all these old people in work longer there's less opportunity for young people to get good jobs.

[DrDreReturns]

More sensible measures, and that have been argued for, would be for, say, over 50s to work less hours or in supportive roles.
I agree with this. You don't have to do the same job all your career. I intend to go part time at some point in my fifties.

[PinkHeart5911]

I feel for anyone male or female that has to work at that kind of age becuase they've no choice and need to do so to keep a roof over there head.

[Itsnotwhatitseems]

I am 52 and will have to work until I'm at least 70 or dead

[SummerKelly]

Iulia I have always worked pretty much full time, I'm ambitious and I now run a business but the issue for me is more is that the level of role I have been able to take on as a lone parent is lower than I would be in if I wasn't doing all the childcare. It was easier when DD was younger as she basically just needed supervising and anyone would do, but as she got older she needed me there more, to have friends over, go to activities and help her through interminable friendship issues. I see so many of my male contemporaries from when I was younger in Chief Executive roles as they have someone at home to do the pick ups, take kids to activities, deal with sick kids, get a book day costume at the last minute, manage stuff at school etc. and are able to stay late, work into the evening, deal with work emergencies, go down the pub to "network", travel etc. I have had no one to share this with but I see lots of threads where women's partners just don't seem willing to do this work.

[Kursk]

DH and I have assumed that there will be no pension or government support available to us but the time we retire. It's up to us to support ourselves.

DH keeps saying he doesn't expect to make it to 90, he says he will probably have a heart attack at 74 while cutting down a tree for firewood

[kaitlinktm]

I'm 23 and can't really feel any sympathy since by the time I'm in my late 60s there probably won't be a state pension and i'll end up working until I drop

This worries me too for the future generations - surely something will have to be done? We can't have whole swathes of people living in penury or dropping dead at work. I hope they find a resolution (I'll be long dead by then but I'll pop back to check).

[littlebird7]

No I definitely don't feel sorry for them!

At least they will get to retire, no chance for the rest of us.

You are on the wrong forum if you are looking for sympathy for the generation of baby boomers that enjoyed rising house prices, jobs for life, triple locked fat pensions and all the benefits under the sun... all the while maternity hospitals are closing down, schools are at bursting point, over extended GPs, foodbank used constantly for working families and lower living standards for everyone else - sorry absolutely no sympathy whatsoever....

[WhataHexIgotinto]

I'm 50 and due to retire at 67. I've had a small private pension since I was 23 and bits and pieces saved so that I can retire at 65 and be able to keep things ticking over til I get my state pension at 67. I know it's only two years of a difference but it's what I cling on to! DH is 4 years younger than me so we figure that providing I'm not planning on going out on the razz every night it should be OK.

[Apairofsparklingeyes]

Most WASPI women don't have private pensions to fall back on. Some companies didn't even allow women to join their pension schemes until the 1990s. Anyone who got divorced didn't get a share of their ex husband's pension until around 15 years ago. Many women now in their 60s don't even have a full state pension entitlement let alone a private one.

[kaitlinktm]

You are on the wrong forum if you are looking for sympathy for the generation of baby boomers that enjoyed rising house prices, jobs for life, triple locked fat pensions and all the benefits under the sun

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.