How can I carry on working until I'm 67?

[hulmegirl1]

I work in the NHS and it's a physically and mentally demanding job that although vital is not well paid.
I am in my mid 50s and am definitely a lot more tired than I used to be.
Quite often I get home (my job means I'm standing most of my shift) and I'm exhausted physically and mentally.
I can't see that I can carry this on until I'm 67. My husband is five years older than me and self employed and doesn't earn much so we rely on my meagre salary to ensure the bills are paid.
Does anyone have any ideas how we are all going to cope with this new reality?
I know if I'd been advised a lot sooner I'd have made very different decisions.
I still have never had a letter advising me of my retirement date and really was not aware until well into my 40s.

romeo I think they meant Parish/district councillor.

I was made redundant at 60 when they closed our office down, so I retired. It was an office job so I could have carried on but it's hard to get a new job at 60. Luckily I had pensions and took my state pension at 61. Now, at 67, I do get tired. The legs ache and sometimes I sneak a nap in the afternoons. I don't know how people can carry on working at this age. I'll probably keep on for another 20 years, taking my pension! I know I'm lucky!

I'm a Prison Officer and didn't want to work until 68 (I'm mid forties) so about four years ago I started doing a professional qualification to get me out.

I can't imagine rolling around the landings at that age!!!

I really have no idea but I am not due to retire until 67 either and it's crap.

I'm an RMN, the options for less intense work are really non existent. I love ward work but it's fast paced and very tiring. Community jobs are less fast paced but mean carrying the responsibility for your caseload alone and that is not something I could manage mentally.

So here I am, working my arse off now with the hope that I can retire earlier or at least reduce my hours. At the moment I work full time and average 11 hours a week overtime, sometimes more which is tiring but I plan to continue until the dc's are through university and then ease off.

I meant it’s outrageous as women of my age were expecting to retire at 60

Maybe you were but it doesn't make it a reasonable expectation. I don't think people can really expect to work for 40 years and then for that to pay for at least 50% of that (ie 20+ years) not working during retirement.

The Pensions Act 1995 changed women's retirement age from 60 to 65, so maybe in your early 30s you thought you would retire at 60 but you've had 24 years to prepare for the increase, it's not been sprung upon you.

People are confused if they think getting a job after uni, and working from age 23 to 55 (say - 32 years in total) and contributing (roughly) 10% of their salary will give them a comfortable living for a further 32 (at least) years of retirement.

That's the Greek model. At some point in the future, our government will probably introduce a staggered pension, starting at age 68-70 perhaps, and becoming a full pension at age 78-80. They will also be forced to savagely reduce pensions of their own labour force (ie the public sector) , by cutting back on the (ridiculous) lump sum, and reducing the amount of pension paid to existing as well as future pensioners. IMO.

In the NHS it is possible to take early retirement- officially retire then go back part time. Some of my colleagues have done this. I stupidly dropped down to part time ( in my early 50s- so too young to retire early but too unwell to work full time) - due to ill health so now will only get a part time pension. Staff shortages mean my 7.5 hour official shift is more normally 12 hours - and yes I get so tired I can’t think straight!
I agree that being forced to retire at 60 in the still well and healthy, was wrong- however what is missing is financial support or suitable less physical work for employees with poorer strength and health who it. We need more flexible working arrangements and pension planning that will cope with this.

Agree with PP, the ageing demographic is causing a huge drain on public funds via pensions and NHS. It's wonderful we are all living longer. nut without an increase in the birth rate, there will not be anywhere near enough young taxpayers to support us as we age.

Ironically, the only group propping up our declining birth rates are immigrant workers - but the Idiot Right would have us drastically cut immigration which will mean insufficient tax to pay for even this shite level of public services we have now

clairemcnam

And remember, most of us started full time work at 16. Not the 21 that many people start working now. I will have been working for 51 years by the time I retire.

That's because the 21yr olds will have been to uni and then are more likely to be higher earners than a school leaver starting work therefore paying more in NI over their working life..No?

This irritates me immensely - the white paper to extend retirement age was Tony Blair initiative

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-1596342/Blair-to-back-retirement-at-67.html

This on going 'tory bastards' directive this board has, please look up your FACTS because half the time you're wrong.

It is not uncommon for people to live into their 90's and seeing their 100th birthday now, they aren't popping off a couple of years post retirement.

www.nhs.uk/news/medical-practice/uk-life-expectancy-expected-to-rise-to-late-80s-by-2030/

The chances are you will live longer than you ever worked. Post 65's now out number sub 16's. Who do you think is going to pick up this tab? And half the time it isn't a 'good' retirement at the end, kept alive in care homes with dementia and frail; old people are an expensive business. With better health care you can keep working longer and contributing to society.

Whisky You know we don't decide state pensions based on how much someone earns? But anyway you are wrong. Many young people now starting work at 21 will never be high earners.

givemesteel Have you missed that the staggering of the introduction of the new pension age was changed abruptly leaving many women in financial shit? They had as little as 5 years to adjust to this change, not 23 years.

YANBU to worry although I understand the reason of extended retirement age - money has to fund our longer lives.

Even if we are fit and healthy in our 60s, doesn't mean we still able to find employment. I am in my mid 40s, I have much greater difficulties getting a job than 15 years ago, ageism and sexism definitely exist especially in the male dominated field I always worked in, I have no other skills so I am kind of stuck worry.

Agreed with other posters, you need to start looking into less physical jobs like admin work? I really can't see another way out.

Well I'm 65 and won't get my pension until next year. I went self employed 16 years ago, expecting to retire at 60. As my DH did. I'm fortunate in that I have savings, so I'm stopping working now.

No problem with harmonising pensionable age, but we needed a damn sight more notice than this. Having said that, why does anyone think it's harder for women to work to 67 than men?

I'm 42 & my nhs pension only starts to pay out at age 68.

I'm a healthcare assistant and don't plan to be doing this physically demanding job at 68 though, if I can get a job in outpatients I'll go for it!

The problem is I had to extend my mortgage term so I'll be paying that until I'm 75 lol.

My mum is 70 & works almost full time as a secretary- she's just had to cope with a new computer system.
If she didn't work she wouldn't be able to pay her bills but unfortunately she's got bad arthritis & a spinal fracture so I'm not sure what will happen...

I think a lot of us wonder.

I work only 20h but have a severely disabled child for whom I care. She will never be independent and I will care until I drop. I am just early 40 but so tired by caring and working and the relentless of it all. I cry every day because I am so broken. I have no idea how to do this for another 25 years.

But I don't think there is much I can do. I even think I will have to work much longer than 68 as I cannot afford to pay much into a pension and will only have the state pension to rely on. It really sucks.

The average 65 year old today can expect to live another 18.4 years. Most people do not live to 100. It will be young people today that will be more likely to live to 100.

So pensions need to fund an average of 16.4 years.

I joined the NHS in 1990 and can claim about half my pension at 55 as have special class status (from 1990-2015), the rest will I can have without penalty at 67. We have no mortgage and am investing heavily as will definitely go at 55, even if I have to cut my cloth. One in four of my role nationally are eligible to go in the next ten years (primary care). Should be fun for those left behind, the service is struggling already.

clairemcnam yes i know that
I'm wondering what your point is though when comparing school leavers to uni leavers. School leavers who probably are low earners who've worked max 5 years more than a uni leaver. As if what you did is somewhat more commendable when the likelihood is the uni leaver would earn more and contribute more to the pot than someone like you.
So what do mean?

The reason pension age is going up is because maintaining the pension age through taxing younger workers is not affordable. That's also why council taxes keep going up. Nothing to do with services. It's to pay the pensions for millions of early retired public sector employees.

I meant it’s outrageous as women of my age were expecting to retire at 60

You wanted equality, you got it. This started being touted in the mid 1990s, part of the Pensions Equalisation Act.

Lets have a little bit of history:

1. The old age state pension was first introduced in 1909

It was paid at a rate of five shillings (25 pence – equivalent to approximately £21.50 today), but only to those who earned less than £21 a year. Anyone who earned more than £31 and ten shillings a year didn’t get it and it was reduced on a sliding scale for those who earned between £21 and £31 and ten shillings. The state pension age was 70.

1. The state pension age was reduced in 1940

In 1940 legislation was passed to reduce the state pension age to 60 for women and 65 for men.

1. Legislation to increase the state pension age for women to 65 was passed in 1995

The government passed legislation in 1995 (part of the Pensions Act) to equalise the state pension age for men and women at 65. That meant that the state pension age would rise for women by five years. The idea was that the state pension age rise would be phased in between April 2010 and 2020, giving women age least 15 years’ notice of the rise in state pension age and time to prepare.

gth1234 The civil service pension has already been reduced. I joined in 2015 and the pension scheme I was able to join at that point doesn’t have a lump sum. Retirement age is the same as state. If we want to retire early, we lose 4% of the pension for each year.

My state retirement age is currently 68 but I expect it will have gone up further by the time i’m there in 26 years - I would lose a third of my pension if I wanted to retire 8 years earlier

What I mean is that some are saying how you can expect 35 years of work to fund 30 years of retirement? Those in my generation who left school at 16, who are not all low earners, the vast majority did not go to uni, will have worked 51 years and will on average have much less than 16.4 years of retirement.

Unicorn You have conveniently left out history there about the staggering of pension age and the changes to that, and the changes to public sector pensions.

Practically your husband may have to look for paid employment to enable you to save more. Start looking for an NHS job that involves less activity, this will take a while I think though. I'm dreading working till 67 (and I think this will increase before I get there).