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.

I can retire at 56, which is 8 years away. I can't imagine being ready by then.

And this does not affect well off people IME. All my friends who are well off have retired early or gone part time. It will only be poor people working till 67, or better off people who choose to. Some of my friends who are well off and have retired could no longer manage to do their job.

NHS pensions were very good until they changed a few years ago.As others have posted previously ,if you’re in the new scheme you can’t draw your pension until you are of age to receive a state pension. I consider myself very fortunate to have been in the old scheme. I actually retired at 57 and am getting my NHS pension monthly(reduced).I am also grateful that our mortgage is paid off and ou DCs are independent having left home. I really feel for my younger colleagues who are expected to work long hours until they are 68.

You will get a state pension at around 67 as well as your NHS pension. However, if you are in your mid 50s, you should be able to access your NHS pension earlier. When you access your NHS pension, you can take a 25% lump sum tax free if you wish. I suggest you see a financial advisor to work out your options based on your current financial commitments such as a mortgage and what size your pension pots are. The advisor may be able to work out how you can finish work earlier if possible.

Ed It really depends on your job and your health.
My DP is 56 and has arthritis. It does not affect his job but would make some jobs impossible to do.

I am in a similar position, only my issue is the mental side of the job, not the physical - my brain isn't as sharp as it used to be - and my tasks keep changing so it isn't even as if I can learn the job and get on with it. I too am worried.

It isn't just that you will be working on exhausted at that age, you will probably have very aged parents needing support ...hospital appointments ...shopping ...support if lonely because one partner has died. Add to this your own children will be having children of their own who may need all sorts of support. I am 67. I retired at 62. I have grandchildren, an 88 year old mother and a 94 year old grandmother. Many people like myself are the sandwich generation trying to give as much cheerful support as possible to both sides of the bread on either side. I am lucky. In good health and only missed out on two years of what I expected but as the government cuts down on care for the really old many people like me are filling in the gaps. Add to this the way in which young people are struggling financially and are so grateful for any childcare they can get. Who will do this in the next generation when people can't retire until they are on their last legs themselves.

94 year old Mil lol ...not grandmother

Agree it's unrealistic to expect everyone to work to 67.

You can retire at 60 in Canada with a reduced pension. 65 for full. It WAS 67, as set by the Conservative party, then Trudeau (Liberal) lowered it to 65 when he got in.

Most people do transition work before retirement, downshift from more physical jobs into other type(s) of work and transition away from working truly FT. It's pretty normal. Folk manage.

like mary1935 suggests you need to get a copy of your pension statement.
you need to attend a few seminars (i attended no less than 3 workplace ones and bring your spouse)
you need to (where i live) register online and review your government pension options.
then you need to think of your income and outgoing expenses.
in my case (we/dh and i) pay less income tax on our earnings (which helps) we no longer pay association dues or union dues (which again helps), we downsized from two vehicles (each went in different directions for work and no village transport at the hours needed) which helped.
we moved to an area that is slightly warmer (decreased our heating costs by 50%) along with being in a newly built home with better insulation.
little steps that all added up.
but first you need to know the numbers applicable to you not just hearsay.

I teach reception class ,a job I love but have started to realise in my early 50 s that the physical fitness needed to keep this up for another 15 years will be a challenge .Teachers of my age are rare enough as it is .

@chestnoots, in Ireland prison officers are considered to be at retirement age at 55 and they get fast accrual with their pension. Once upon a time i would have thought, never in a million years would I be a prison officer but retiring at 55 with a full pension seems smart.

I retired when I hit 65, it wasn't the job so much as I was doing a long commute every day, leaving at 6am in the morning and getting home after 7.30pm each evening.
I found as I got older organising the house hold (adult DC's at home) and working all a bit too much, and as I had both my state pension and occupational pension I went for it.
However DH is 4 years younger than me and is self employed in the building trade and will not get his state pension until he is 67 (5 years from now) he is really struggling with his very physical job and is exhausted every evening.
The Politicians who raised the retirement age are not of retirement age themselves so have no idea how working in a physically demanding job until you are nearly 70 feels.
If I could have had a car collect me every day and drop me at the office, and return me home, I would still be working now aged 67!

I haven't worked in the NHS for many years and not enough to retire at 55 (67 for me), after returning to university and embarking on a new career when my children grew up. I have always been the main wage earner and would have been less generous towards my feckless ex husband (I set up and paid into a pension scheme for him for years). He had always enjoyed himself with his earnings whilst I paid the bills and made sure our children were ok and secure. I just wanted to get rid of him to be honest but if I'd known what lay ahead I'd have been a lot tougher on our divorce. I was emotionally abused and controlled by him for years and by the time I plucked up the courage to escape I just wanted out at any price for my own mental health.
I'm seriously considering taking a wage drop to a less physically demanding job just so I can hopefully keep doing it until I can eventually retire.
I agree that the pension age needed to be raised but 7 years in one fell swoop when you are well into your career is far too much. It should have been gradual. I bet those who made the decision have nice fat pensions and don't need to worry about it.

I was talking to a lab assistant at work today who is worried she is going to be made redundant. She is in her late 50's, is already struggling with aspects of the job, and will struggle to get something else.

lielj transferring to part time does seem normal for those who are well off.

The problem is that the retirement age wasn’t increased earlier! Those women who were allowed to retire at 60 are living considerably longer than expected. Unfortunately those of us who are 10 or more years younger have had to bear the brunt and like many others I don’t get state pension until I’m 67 as I’m having to subsidise all those who were allowed to retire at age 60 and 65.

I am in late 50s and have to work an extra 7 years to get state pension.
In order to have a decent works pension my contributions are now roughly 10% of my salary. Previous employees’ contributions were much less. My pension is based on what I put in, but those who retired 6-7 years ago got pension based on final salary.

There is now a section of the population in late 60s onwards who got the best of the deal, decent works pension, state pension and an extra 7 years of retirement to enjoy.

Yes I’m annoyed, but unfortunately something had to give. Quite simply we are living too long and draining the resources of this country, not just with the increase in the number of state pensions paid out, but also vastly increased health service requirements. The country simply couldn’t afford to carry on the way it was, making each generation bear more and more burden of the vastly increasing number of pensioners. Something had to give or our children and grandchildren would have to pick up that burden and that wouldn’t be fair.

Unfortunately it’s tough shit 😣

I find it incredible that someone working in the NHS, who must surely see the struggle it's under, can expect to be supported by the state in their last 15-25 years of life. When pensions were started with a start at 60/65 years people weren't living far into their 70s, a pension was meant to support in your final years. Yes we've all paid into it for years, but it's not an insurance policy designed to pay out after X years, it's a pension, designed to support you when you're too old to work. We might not be able to do our current (physical) jobs when in the last ten years from retirement, but we should be able to do something lighter. I'm about to hit my 50s, I know I need to start looking and planning work that I could do in 5 yrs time. That's life. On the plus point, I won't have a mortgage then, so won't need as much income.

My parents generation had the best deal, they just missed the war, got to retire early, lived comfortably and just about have a decent NHS. Unfortunately it's not going to be like that for us. I wouldn't be surprised if retirement goes up to 70 before I get to retire.

While 17 years of NHS pension would be worth accruing, I think I would be focusing on moving into a more sustainable role inside NHS or in another area asap even with a wage cut, as it can be harder to get new roles later on due to ageism.

Depends on what job you are doing - I think asking people in certain jobs to work to 67 is ludicrous - prison officers in high security prisons for one (they'd have to ask for transfer to an open or low risk prison or desk job). Understaffed, underpaid and filled with should be OAP's - a recipe for disaster.

And yes I am already supporting my 86 year old mother who has limited mobility (my father died many years ago) and looking after grandchildren where I can. I'm looking after my 3 year old grandson over the weekend so his parents can work. No wonder our generation is exhausted. At almost 60 I think my husband would struggle to find paid employement to be honest.

As for those who still think women should be allowed to retire at 60 while men carried on till 65......you wanted equality, or as seems to be the case equality when it suits, but not when it doesn’t??

You can’t have your cake and eat it!!

Nobody is saying this does not apply to men.

But you can retire and draw your pension at 60....you just get less than you would otherwise, don't you? (Albeit more than you'd get in a private or dc pension, tbf).

Having said that, I can absolutely see that certain jobs will be very hard to do after a certain age. I think if it were me, I'd be tempted to take it at 60+ with the acuturial reduction, and try and get a relatively straightforward job to top me up a bit.

Yes I know the official position is change jobs. That does get harder as you get older because of age discrimination. All the research shows that if you are over 50 it is harder to get another job, even more so if you are changing roles.