I’m one of those early retirees you’re referring to as “supporting themselves”
. I retired at 55 . I was already signed off sick for 5 months before I left. I was in a very bad place mentally due to work related stress (business reorganisation and bullying bosses). I was also doing a job that should have been 30% time travel away form home, In last 2 years I was away from home for over 50% of my nights including weekends - mostly abroad in Europe or long haul destinations. I was jet lagged, sleep deprived and to cap it all had the most horrendous menopause symptoms including interstitial cystitis that wasn’t being treated effectively, and bowel incontinence- none of which work well on long haul flights and being in hotels.
I am very fortunate that I earned enough to have acquired sufficient pension to retire at such an early age and help myself to get to a better, healthier place.
but in referring to people like me as “self sufficient”, you are missing a big point. I’m not just “self sufficient”: people like me, who are fortunate enough to retire voluntarily early, are also paying still paying tax on their pension income, to continue to support the “system”. I will continue to pay tax when my state pension kicks in finally- some of that will be at higher rates by then (quite rightly)
So whilst I’m economically inactive on paper, I most certainly am still contributing to society’s financial needs. I also do a lot of volunteering to help society in other ways- again in common with a lot of people who can retire early.
I was contacted recently by an old ex boss asking if I wanted some short term contract work (skills I have are in demand). I seriously contemplated it for about 2 weeks as I liked working for him, and would have got a lot of money for something that I liked doing. Big as I started to really think of reality of what I’d be doing I remembered just how ill and depressed I had become . So, here i am still economically inactive.
I now use my brain in a completely different way. I could make money from it- but what I’d get wouldn’t come anywhere close to my labour time. So I do it purely for pleasure and without any pressure of having to do it.
second point: I supported my ex for 20 years as a carer and wife due to his severe and enduring mental illness. I was sole breadwinner for 20 years, effectively sole parent and the best thing he had to a CPN. At no time did we get any benefits from the state, as I earnt too much, and for those benefits he may have got he didn’t want to go through the process of applying and interviews (he had paranoia so not exactly conducive for going through interviews about his mental health). He couldn’t work- safeguarding issues meant he’d been fired a few times, exited under other reasons even more time - he was unemployable . There are thousands of families like ours where 1 person is “economically inactive” but in reality have illnesses etc that make it impossible to hold down a job but do not want to go through horrible process of applying for disability benefits. They’re on the list of “economically inactive”. In reality if they got into the “system” they’d be net “takers” not contributors”.
In all, it’s a very misleading, headline grabbing statistic. Click bait really.
If the government is batshit crazy enough to try to do something about it as a “single” entity they’re even more dumb than I thought. There are multiple complex and personal reasons people are economically inactive -a lot could be resolved with funding for NHS, mental health services, better labour regulations, menopausal support , better social care for elderly , available /cheaper child care, etc- but government isn’t going to spend money on even what we currently have, let alone resolving the route causes.