To wonder how people will find jobs in their late 60s?

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i was just thinking about pension ages, prompted by the Waspi thread and also fact that I spend a lot of time worrying about my own retirement.

i know the pension age has to rise but at the same time I think it will create even more inequality. There will be people with private pensions who can retire at 55 and then those who can’t - and are likely to struggle to stay employed until they can get the state pension - which is likely to be 70 soon.

i my professional job there is an expectation that people retire at around 55. There are no people in their 60s. When I look at people employed in retail, etc I also only see people in their early 60s maximum.

how is someone aged 65 supposed to find a new job?

if anything, I feel like there is more ageism now than ever before. Particularly in relation to older women.

I believe the age to take your private pension is rising to 57?

My mum retired earlier this year, aged 70 (and 4 months). She was in retail and had been for about 20 years. There are plenty of people in retail in their 60s. Finding a new job is a challenge, but if you're already in it and physically capable then you can keep going as long as you need/can.

My dm worked until she was mid 70s in an admin/payroll job.

This is one of the issues of raising pension age and the idea of means testing state pension. There is a tipping point because if you can't claim state pension you'll be claiming UC or PIP with little realistic chance of finding a new job or being physically capable of doing the job. All that admin processing and monitoring the UC claim will eventually outweigh the cost of just giving state pension.

I think perhaps while there is an expectation you will retire perhaps companies don’t actually particularly want staff to retire. I know of one highly regarded bloke who worked for Dh’s company who must be in his late 70’s, the company asked him to stay in touch as a consultant because of his vast experience, he’s been brought on for projects that DH has worked on, by all accounts he’s very very good. I imagine there are places where experience is highly valued.

People can also reduce hours etc. I think however people who have physically active jobs are going to struggle the most. The body just can’t keep going at the same pace after a while.

That's a good question.
You'd hope with a falling birthrate and a target to reduce immigration, that there would be a demand for workers of all ages.

But getting a job in your late 60s is hard. And there will be a lot of people who have taken their private pension early, who have their mortgage paid off, lots of disposable income, whilst others are in unreliable renting or are still paying a mortgage, who have little disposable income etc

In the last few years I've noticed people over 60 working in jobs like Pret in London. They always strike me as adept, efficient and enjoying it. Presume they might do that while waiting for state pension to kick in.

I retired from NHS at 60 and now have a part time shop job. It’s a heck of a lot more physical than I’d thought 🥴.

I’ll keep going as long as I can but I’d be pushing it A LOT to keep going until 67 or 70!

I was fortunate to get this job in the first place and had applied for several jobs before getting it.

We had older workers at our local tesco, they were pleasant, cheerful and seemed to enjoy it, probably the social aspect of work was a good thing.

With all the moaning about gen z you may find it easier to find a job than you’d think.

I'd hire them in a heartbeat. Better work ethic and less whiny than the 16-24 year olds I have to manage.

The short answer is, they won't.

There have always been some people who are fit, able and willing to work into their 70s and beyond, and they'll carry on doing just that - great for them!

Others will succumb to the inevitable health problems of ageing and if they can't afford to retire on a private pension or other savings/investments, they will have to claim whatever unemployment, sickness or disability benefits are available.

We will be no better off as a country. The state pension age should have stayed at 65, maximum.

how is someone aged 65 supposed to find a new job?

Why would people wait until 6.5 to look for a new job?

Being able to afford to retire at 55 is very unusual, although maybe people accessing part of the pension pot early might be more common. Although as a PP pointed out, that is due to rise to 57.

As for your profession having an "expectation" to stop at 55, that might have to change. Unless the salary is so high that people can afford to retire that early. Which means the equality is already there.

I work in finance and the oldest people I work with are mid to late 50s. At that age most are waiting for a redundancy package to tide them over to taking their private pension (currently 55 but moving to 57) then state pension. I do see a lot of older people in shops and coffee type places. Maybe not your trendy retail shops but in the likes of Costa. I'd quite like to retire in early 60s and then take a part time job to keep active and bring in some income but I guess it depends on your health.

I worry about this. I'm 58 and have worked as a children's nanny for most of my working life. When my current job ends, I just think who will want a nanny in their 60s?

I also imagine that given people becoming parents later and having longer, higher mortgages that early retirement will become quite unusual. 65 will be the new early retirement.
I don't know many who've retired at 55 now.

It’s very difficult, I worked in an office where ladies in their sixties were having to get quite hard going cleaning jobs, which they were struggling with.

Men of that age didn’t seem to come to us for help, perhaps were working, or were in worse health, or were better at avoiding work, in this situation I don’t know.

i do know an in-law relative avoided work for years with a health condition, which didn’t actually inhibit him at all.

I don’t know how it’s affordable either way. If you start working in your early 20’s then retire at 65 and die at the average life expectancy you are looking at maybe half your life being economically unproductive. Perhaps it’ll just encourage people who could work to work longer rather than just retire, or at least stay in part time. Others will end up on a hodgepodge of welfare.

There are some benefits to working longer for certain cohorts on physical and cognitive health.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167494322001893#:~:text=Low%20control%20jobs%20were%20associated,lower%20odds%20of%20cognitive%20impairment.

My mum looked after my children until her late 70’s and there was no one better than her.
She is of course still going throng in her late 80’s but no longer does child care

They will have to run down their savings and then claim UC. Of course UC is far lower than state pension so the government will save £. I agree the age should have stayed at 65.

I can’t imagine this will be possible for people who are currently in their 30’s early 40’s. Without a massive cash injection most people will still be paying mortgages or aren’t well paid enough or have generous pensions schemes to be able to retire.

The minimum age that individuals can take private pensions is being adjusted to maintain a 10 year gap with the state pension age (so the 15 year gap you are suggesting won’t ever be).

I’ve seen a trend for people in what would’ve historically been early retiring career paths starting to retire later. My DM worked in retail as a store manageress and was still working a couple of days a week at age 78 when she was made redundant.

On the other hand there’s somebody on the work board this morning who can’t get another job at 55.

Just want to pick up on the comment that state pension age is going to go up to 70. There’s no suggestion of that, that’s just a scaremongering think tank view. In reality, life expectancy is falling and it’s more likely that the state pension will be capped or increases reduced in some way.

The ones who are in jobs will carry on working and the ones who can't and who don't have private pensions will just claim sickness benefits and out of work benefits as they do now. I work in benefits advice for over 50's and the amount of people on sickness benefits and UC or couples where one is sick and the other doing very part time work seems to be very high. I'm 58 and my project will finish next year. If I can't find anything else I will have to just take my private pension at 60 and make do !

Yeah I know a lot of people look after their grandchildren, but I think when they're actually paying for childcare, they'll go for the younger nannies who they think have more energy, although that's not necessarily true, I spend a lot of time running around with the kids and not just looking at my phone like some younger nannies I know 😉

If you try to move into ‘shop work’ having retired from a professional job you’ve got no chance. I have applied to all the major stores and they are not interested.

In my profession people retire early and a few years ago everyone over 50 was made redundant in a major reorganisation. Only a couple of people found permanent work after that.