To think part of the increase in long term sickness is the increase in retirement age?

[Lazykitten]

Thinking of the people I know who are long term economically inactive long term (I believe that counted as over 6 months) and nearly all I know who fall into that bracket are my parents and there friends. Dad was a factory sparky and mum was a cleaner. Dad stopped work at i think around 61, mum does part time caring now in her early 60s but really struggles and I can see her having to give it up soon.

Most of their friends had similar manual jobs and now in their mid 60s a lot are signed off sick waiting for pension. These are people who have had manual jobs since they were 15/16 and their bodies are knackered. They can't (and very little point) in retraining now for their last couple of years before they get the state pension.

I work in an office job so can feasibly see how I could work to my late 60s and beyond, but those who've done manual work for over 40 years have the wear and tear on their bodies that they simply can't. As well as other health problems & decreasing energy levels that come with ageing.

There's got to be a sizeable number of folk age 60-67 that fall in that bracket? And taking it further is it another stick to beat the working class with?

The problem is ‘repetitive’ work, such as keyboards. There are many jobs where you use your arms, but without the repetitive work that working with a keyboard brings. I use a computer in my work, and have for years. I find part way through my day I have to rest my wrists as they ache. But I’m perfectly fine with other tasks.

Public messaging about healthy living has been severely lacking, and downright misleading, for generations imo. For women in particular, how many have actually properly learnt how to lift weights for example? Even if they've been active throughout their lives, they've likely spent it doing aerobics, or running or yoga. They're great of course and will help a lot, but they're usually not enough to keep frailty at bay, unless the yoga they're doing is very strenuous, the average leisure centre class isn't going to cut the mustard. Many will have severely weakened bones if they bought into the diet culture of the 80s-2000s, thinking they were being healthy. There's lots we know now about the importance of maintaining muscle and bone density as we age, and younger women will probably fare much better as they age as a result. But you can hardly blame women in their 60s for being frail, they were actively discouraged from doing the things that would prevent frailty when they were younger.

I completely agree with you. I became invisible when I got into my 50s and it was loud and clear that ageism was an issue when during reorganisation, a tranche of senior managers was recruited, with the oldest of them being 45. Several already senior managers in their 50s were sidelined, people who were respected and knew their stuff, in favour of less qualified people who really don't!

I can't stand the bullshit any more either. Sick of managers who think they are reinventing the wheel!

100% this

I'd be pretty fucking pissed off if I was deprived of the retirement funding I have paid for all my working life!!

Children aren't leaving home the way they used to - they can't afford it. Or they go away and they come back. Currently supporting three adult children for various reasons in our 60s. Our street is strewn with cars belonging to 20 somethings still living at home with mum and dad!

A lot of part time jobs are physical too - not ideal for the over 50s.

My parents have young male carers cos I can’t move their bodies - I’m just too short and arthritic 😀

I’m interested to see how the govt reconciles ‘able to work’ with ‘employable’. Employers might remind Rishi they’re not the same thing.

I think a lot of middle class people have no understanding of the damage caused to bodies doing physical work since someone was 16 years old. By state retirement age these people will have been working for 53/4 years.

Of course you would - so would I !

I suspect this feeling is why politicians never broach the subject.

But would you have enough income from other sources, eg private / occupational pension, rental income, stocks and shares dividends, to stay financially afloat reasonably comfortably without the state pension?

Some people of pension age would. When we think of working age benefits we consider it fair that people have [just] enough to live on and no more. But this does not seem to apply to pensioners.

The nation is having to ration healthcare, social care, special needs education, etc etc, due to allegedly being unaffordable. So I don't think that questioning the existence of a state pension for everybody, regardless of whether they need it or not, is particularly unreasonable.

I think a significant amount of long term sickness among under 40s is drug use to be honest.

Whilst i dont disagree with your post Noisysnail there are also issues for non manual workers. Churchview and runnininthenight are right. If you are in a professional job many companies quietly are biased against you. younger workers always seem to be held in higher esteem, maybe because they are cheaper and keener, not having been worn down by years of management reorgs and changes in direction and strategy. And try keeping up with new technology when you are in your 60's thats not always so easy - cant imagine manual workers could do this either

Define significant? I think this is absolute tosh to be honest.

How little you know...!

@dreamingofsun I agree that age discrimination is real.

Those who advocate means testing state pensions - all that would happen is lots of people in their fifties would cash in their private pensions and retire. The average private pension is not high.
And anyone who can only get enough through a private pension to bring in equivalent of state pension would opt out of private pensions. It would cost the government more as these people would also be entitled to top up benefits.
Private pensions were sold to my generation as a top up to state pension.

1.25M people on the UK are estimated to have long covid or ME/CFS.

This seems to be largely ignored by government. No treatments and precious little research.

There is a lot you can do to mitigate the risk of becoming sick and immobile as you age, but you can’t eliminate it. What you can guarantee is if you don’t exercise, eat healthily, stay a healthy weight and retain your muscle mass/fitness, you will be at an increased risk and your later years will be marred by sickness and pain.

I would encourage everyone to take personal responsibility for their health. Don’t rely on getting government support as you age, because it’s unlikely to be there.

By the way recent research has identified fears about state pensions being eroded as an issue that will lose Conservative party support amongst their core older voters. If the Conservatives did adopt this policy, it would wipe them out as an electoral party.

@Dentistlakes Do not scaremonger. Of course government support will be there. Even in the 1800s local parishes gave old age pensions to local elderly people deemed incapable of working.
Or are you really suggesting elderly people without money sleep and beg on the streets?

Mischance, Im not arrogant at all. Hardly lucky either. In my 20s I had countless abdominal surgeries which left me with problems,had over a year of severe abdominal pain from 2022, which I found was caused by these surgeries, I couldn't move from the sofa, analgesics didn't touch it. I couldn't get a GP appointment. I spent 40 years doing my best for the NHS and the patients. I decided I was going to do my best to keep fit and active. I've had joint problems,pain over the years.

I agree that staying healthy requires effort and is hard work!
Part of the reason is that the food industry invests heavily in producing junkfood/edible food like substances which are highly addictive.
Another factor is the lack of provision for enjoyable exercise/physical activity.
We need to structure incentives such that the healthy option becomes the default option.

This is very true, whilst in the poshest suburbs of my town in coastal South East England, almost every house is significantly under-occupied by one or two people aged 70+.

For instance, my dm lives in a small cul-de-sac containing a total of 22 bedrooms, totted up between all the properties. 9 people live in the cul de sac, six of them in couples. Surrounding streets show a similar story.

It is not their fault and I am not blaming them. It is a symptom of how systemically messed-up housing, wealth and so many other things are, in the UK now.

Do you think drug addiction isn't a problem in the UK? Scotland has the highest drug death rate in Europe. UK has highest drug addiction.

It’s not scaremongering, it’s the way things are heading. The state pension is barely enough to survive on as it is. If you don’t have a private pension to top it up you’re looking at a very basic existence unless you can keep working. The NHS is crumbling, care tor the elderly is already horrendous
and under staffed. The last thing you want to be is sick
and reliant on government funded care.

@Dentistlakes I could survive on the state pension. But I am used to not having much. The state pension will continue.