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.

AutumnColours9

SAHP may be absolutely fantastic, but there has to be a worker/taxpayer supporting their lifestyle choice. Very few people can live on fresh air alone.

Be honest this discussion has been going on for a very long time! It is not a new revelation.

I am nearly 40 and I distinctly remember discussing it as a teen and realising that by the time I was old I would be working forever!

I distinctly remember giving myself expiry dates for the physically tiring jobs I did as a teen and in my early 20s.

And looking at a colleague of mine when I was working as a deli worker with amazement. She was ancient (she was also an immigrant so not sure if she qualified for any benefits which might explain why she was still working). I found lifting those hams out difficult then, so I don't know how she did it! This was 20 years ago so it was definitely being discussed then. You need to act fast and move into another role.

goose I agree. I look at my parents in their 70s now who are in good shape for their age. But there was a marked change between 60and 65. They slowed down and got tired more easily over a year or two. People live longer because we can cure a lot of things but we haven't cracked aging.

Also Local Government pensions are in a fund. Councils don't pay them out of their budgets. The pension you took out with a retirement age of 60 has changed to 67 unlike private pensions that stick to the age they said.

I have played sport for years and if I am honest I thought I would be fit and healthy into my 70s. So no I did not plan to be sedentary in my jobs in my 50s and early 60s. Life does not always pan out as you think it will.

After a really active life and working 12 hour shifts for years, I thought that I was fit and healthy.

Over the last 2 years I have developed severe osteoarthritis in my hips. Looking back it was coming on for a number of years, but I simply ignored it, worked 12 hour nursing shifts, hobbled about at work and lifted my legs into the car to go home afterwards.

About 18 months ago my daughter said " did I actually see you having to lift your legs into the car Mother?" She was a student nurse at that time, but again I told her it would be fine after my days off, just tired.

Now I really need one hip replacement and the other will not be far behind. I will work for as long as possible, but I think people have to be aware that older people cannot always work indefinitely because it fits with the political agenda.

We have to work longer, jobs a decreasing and there will be even less jobs as we improve technology.

The only jobs available will be care work and hospitality . Which are not well paid, but require activity, and potentially less education. Nurses are better paid than care staff.

But that’s okay, let’s keep having big families.

It’s time to realise that the country won’t look after us.

I am 58 and have just taken voluntary early retirement after 38 years of full time work. I have an occupational pension but won’t get the state pension until I’m 67. We have no children or mortgage. I realise I’m lucky to have been able to do this.

How many of us struggle with our older parents getting frustrated with current technologies like texting and the internet? That’ll be us in the work place in 20 years time

It will not. It doesn't have to be the case if you keep yourself up to date and don't try and pretend the world is the same as when you were in your twenties. In terms of mindset, it's a choice to get old.

In my job I work two days from home, three days in the office and it isn't physically demanding. I'm only in my early 40s but have taken steps since having kids to find a less demanding, less stressful and just nicer job and have finally found one. The way I worked before kids in my twenties didn't work any more. If it still exists, I can do this job up to retirement age as the previous incumbent did.

If they make a state pension means tested, there will be no point for anyone on a lower wage to pay into a pension
Great idea - 🙄 My pals who earn less by choice to have a less stressful life will end up better than those who burst a gut and acquired debt to get qualified to earn more ultimately and secure a better financial future.
Lots of (not all) lower earners choose to be so by working part time, because they have enough income coming in elsewhere already!

@StoneofDestiny i don’t think we need to worry. the means tested state pension will be barely enough to survive on - think single bedroom as a lodger + foodbanks. there will be no money

I'm mid 30's so by the time I should retire, there will most likely be NO retirement age. My generation will probably have to work until we drop dead. Its ridiculous that retirement age is going up all of the time. Where will it end?
My MIL is in a very physically demanding job in the NHS (and has a busted knee, but still has to work) as she was due to retire but has to work another couple of years as the age limit went up yet again. It's doing her health no good.

I think the problem is the generation who retired at 60 with state pensions and often final salary pensions have given unrealistic expectations to others. The women subject to the change in pension age had decades of notice which should have been plenty.

We simply can’t afford universal pensions at 60. I don’t think those on a low income can complain about that on the basis they “paid their stamp”. The cost of the state pension is huge and those on low wages are not paying enough tax to pay for themselves and are relying on others to do so (you need to be at least a higher rate tax payer before you are paying for the services you use).

I do think public sector final salary pensions are totally unsustainable too. It’s hugely expensive and not affordable. I think we should move to a defined contribution scheme for everyone. They are easier to understand and less burdensome on employers (many private companies have gone bust because of defined benefit pension schemes - in the public sector these schemes mean much less money for services).

Also there’s already an issue that you need to save quite a lot to make you better off pensions wise. Saving a little or a for some, quite a reasonable amount means you have no entitlement to state benefits in old age but are not any better off than those on benefits. I wouldn’t object to a means tested state pension, as long as the income level was set high enough that there was still an incentive to save.

Any changes to any contribution, payments or retirement ages needs a long lead in. Changing retirement ages when it was so close to people’s planned for retirement was outrageous.
People had worked, planned and made arrangements towards a date that changed without enough notice. By all means discuss, consult and decide change with a 10 - 15 year lead in giving the working population time to adjust.
Realistically however it has to be recognised that some jobs aren’t suitable for older people - the physical and mental demands just too great.

A lot of women I know have had children in their late 30s and then drop to part time hours. This combined effect means they have to work longer and can't save or plan for retiring younger. It isn't equal yet.

I’m 50 and started a transition job a year ago specifically as it is likely I could do it without too many problems until I’m in my 60’s. By then I have private pensions that will kick in so I can go part time. DH on the other hand will, by his own declaration, work until he drops as he cannot deal with the thought of being a pensioner.

I'm not sure I fully understand the impact of the changes except for the small proportion of women who made plans in their late 50s and were hit by being not entitled to a state pension when they thought they were.

I started work aged 20, in 1980, when I thought I would retire at 60. The problem then was that I could not be admitted to the company pension scheme until I was 24. That was wrong.

At 24 I started contributing to the company pension. At 29 I moved jobs and my employer contributed, alongside me to a private pension. Pot 1.

At 33 I moved to a very good firm with an occupational scheme. Pot 2.

My contracted out contributions formed Pot 3.

8 years off.

Started work at 43 in a low paid job to retrain. 9 years contributions into public sector scheme - Pot 4.

Changed jobs and salary was similar again to when I stopped working and in the same scheme as Pot 4. Because salary had caught up I bought the equivalent of 12 years pension with Pots 1, 2 and 3 which with the 7.5 years in Pot 4 provided a Local Government Pension Scheme in Pot 5. Pot 5 now has the equivalent of 25.5 years in it. If I keep going for another 4.5 years I will have 75% of a full occupational pension. It may be more if I work for longer.

I am happy with that taking into account breaks from working.

I can retire now if I want and take about £21k (could work part-time). It would be more if I deferred it, increasing depending on the length of the deferral. Obviously it increases the longer I keep working.

I have about 1.5 years to secure a full state pension at 67.

I knew in my early 20s I would have to plan for retirement income.

The point I'm trying to make is that many people including those in the NHS scheme and other public schemes can take early retirement from 55 on reduced benefits and work on an alternative occupation to make up earnings during the interim until their state pension is payable in the interim. Also, for those with significant health issues there is the option of ill health early retirement although the barfor this is I know very high.

There has been information about pensions and future plans in the press for the last 35 to 40 years. Certainly the age increases were being written about and debated from the early 90s.

Well in the 90s I was working full time and bringing up two children and paying a childminder (same one for fourteen years) out of my own salary (no tax relief or free nursery hours back then), so keeping another woman off benefits. At the same time I was helping my mother to nurse my late father who had MND and dealing with an emotionally abusive husband so forgive me if I didn't have time to read the nespapers. I was too busy trying to keep a multiple plates spinning and making sure my family were alright.

work until he drops as he cannot deal with the thought of being a pensioner

I know! I don't understand this desire to pack up work at 55 (unless you have significant health issues). Retirement looks tedious to me.

agree revoke
my relative is offered early retirement at 57, the thought of that worries me

working is healthy

I'm in my mid 50's and have worked since I was 15 even whilst studying. After giving birth twice, I went back to work after 6 months maternity leave. When I hit 50, I suddenly became unwell and had to have 2 operations in the same year and had to take a total of 3 months sick leave.
I went back to work but only lasted 3 months before it was discovered I had an incurable cancer which has left me disabled. I'll never be able to work again and won't be around to draw the pension that I paid in to for 35 years.
None of us know what's going to happen in the future...
To those of you in your 60's still working, good for you. But, have a bit if empathy for those of us who would love to still be out at work, earning a living and having a life.

I stopped working at 59 due to an injury. DH was 63 and we qualified for pension credit due to his age, and Age UK worked out that we'd be on pretty much the same income claiming that as our former salaries (both low paid, and DH was part time), because we get council tax paid and some disability benefits as well. No pension as we've never been in jobs that offered it (except a tiny one introduced after auto enrolment). I'm not due my state pension until a few years when I'm 67, but my income won't change then, I'd just get less pension credit to make up for the amount I get as state pension. We can manage to live on just pension credit and my disability benefits, mainly because we have been on low incomes all our lives, so we know how to budget well and we paid off the mortgage years ago. We take full advantage of all age-related and means-tested discounts too (free travel pass for over 60s here in London, low cost council gym, lunch club, cheap cinema screenings, reduced water and heating bills). We have 4 dc who are successful grown adults now, and they often treat us to meals and trips out, pay for appliances that need replacing, and the occasional holiday too, so it's not all scrimping.

We've settled into retired life pretty easily. I have 4 dgc, and help out a lot with 2 of them (we cover all childcare during school holidays), and I have taken up some gentle exercise to help with health issues. Both DH's parents and my parents are dead. I keep myself busy with reading, art classes, cinema visits and community events. I never expected to retire early, and thought I'd have to be working into my 70s, but we're enjoying retired life now. Health-wise I was always very fit, but due to my injury I've had to claim PIP and have had a lot of health issues on top of that due to the way my medication has affected me. It's a big assumption to think that you'll continue being healthy enough to manage to work for as long as you want, since anyone can be struck by a major illness or accident.

The government has recently changed pension credit rules so we wouldn't be able to retire so early now, which does seem a shame for those affected in the future.

grin I know! I don't understand this desire to pack up work at 55 (unless you have significant health issues). Retirement looks tedious to me.

I don’t understand why some people can’t think of anything they would like to do if they weren’t working. No hobbies or passions other than work?

but you need money for hobbies surely?