Bring Retirement Age Back Down?

[BlueBrian]

Should people in their 60s be offered early retirement by the state to allow more young people to get jobs?

Risk of 'dole queue' future for young people after Covid-19 crisis.
www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/06/risk-dole-queue-future-young-people-after-covid-19-crisis

@Hadenoughfornow
Agree!

I think so as many people would be happy to stay in rather than be risking their lives

My mum is 60 and works full time in the NHS. She’s mortgaged until she’s 70 so no choice but to keep risking her life at the moment.

Selfish, or can’t actually afford to retire?

Seems to be a awful lot of selfish old people around who are quite happy to keep the young out of work.

Yep, shitter isn’t it. I plan to work for at least another 5 years enjoying my work and the fruits of my labours. I’m loving this time of life and the freedom to travel and enjoy life that the money I earn brings.

And why the fuck is ageism allowed on here? It’s disgusting.

Yes, they should.
I'm part time now. No way I can keep up with my job (Nurse) full time. 12 hour days running about on your feet is a killer. I do two in a row some weeks, and it takes me a full day of doing nothing after it to recover as I ache so much. Not long ago I did full time, I couldn't stand up getting out of the car after driving home 30 minutes, my legs and feet hurt so much. I honestly was working myself to death. I'm going to retire early anyway 62 ish. People in phyical jobs really shouldn't be expected to try and do this till 67.
Oh and I'm pretty dam fit gained a few lockdown pounds I do exercise, and and very flexible too yoga

I don’t really get why it’s selfish to want to keep working? The jobs vacated by retiring people are rarely going to go straight to an entry level worker, I suppose in retail jobs maybe. You do realise state pensions are paid for by the taxes of those currently in work, not the taxes paid by those retired people in the past?

The state pension was set up to have 5 workers supporting each pensioner, now we’re on around 1-1 and soon it’ll be 2 pensioners for every one worker (I appreciate this is crude maths) but it’s not sustainable to have huge amount of people retires for 30-40 years, this is why the pension age has gone up. I think there should be more flexibility in the system to allow for situations like those in very manual work who actually can’t work at older ages, who’s bodies by suffer earlier, but on the whole people are fitter and healthier to work later than they used to be, and all us young workers can’t afford the huge taxes to keep millions of pensioners from 60-90.

On top of the extra we’ll be paying to pay back these crisis measures

Absolutely the retirement age will go up after this , 70 I expect.

I guess, there could be a way where anyone over a particular age (but under pension age) could "choose" to claim UC with no job seeking/health related restrictions, to free up a job to someone younger - should they wish to do so. Along with some sort of bonus too I guess to make it more fair? That allows people who feel they aren't as able to work as they were (eg the manual workers) to access some money, without faffing about with the official pension age?

“Seems to be a awful lot of selfish old people around who are quite happy to keep the young out of work.”

There’s no fixed number of jobs in the economy. No older person is “keeping the young out of work” simply by having a job.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lump_of_labour_fallacy

How the hell are they going to argue for a higher retirement age now . You cant say the 65+ should go out to work yet at the same time class that age group as vulnerable.

MN The 60 + are so selfish taking younger peoples jobs
Also MN 60+ are so entitled when it comes to pensions

Seems to be a awful lot of selfish old people around who are quite happy to keep the young out of work

Tell you what, I'll agree to retire at 60 if you agree to pay me the £800 a month that I'll lose, hows that?

I’m sure my 60 year old mum would love to retire from her job, she just needs someone to pay her mortgage. Any takers?

Throughout my working life, I planned for retirement at 60.
It was the government that decided I should carry on working until nearly 70.

I was actually quite happy with the plans to bring women's retirement age up to 63, to have parity with men, and because I didn't feel ready to be put out to grass just then.
But they changed it upwards again, in a short space of time, and here we are, still working.

Seems to be a awful lot of selfish old people around who are quite happy to keep the young out of work.

Most “selfish old people” don't have a choice. Suck it up, we've had to.

And as HorseRedArrow observed:
There’s no fixed number of jobs in the economy. No older person is “keeping the young out of work” simply by having a job.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lump_of_labour_fallacy

Those of us who do have the choice do not cease to be active citizens with rights to work and take part in any other activities we want, just because we are older.

The ageism on MN is disgusting.
“People live too long”
Well, fuck you very much. I expect you'll be campaigning for euthanasia over a certain age soon.
I hope you remember this when you're older. 🙄

Personally I think the country is going to be in such dire straits after this that cannot happen. The money to pay all this back will have to come from somewhere and I imagine tax payers will be a lot worse off!

Must admit I do feel a bit sorry for people still paying a mortgage after they're 60, fortunately I bought my house with cash, so it's not a problem for me.

Obviously you know most people aren’t in a position to buy a house with cash though?

I think you are trolling now.

@BlueBrian well woopee for you!

Anyone know what the stats are for employment in the over 60 category and what industries/types of roles?

Bit more nuanced than making everyone retire, as may also be working to top up pension.

the state pension is easily enough to pay all the bills, and pay for food etc,

Really? The basic state pension is £134.25 for a single person, yes, I know that there are additional benefits if you have no other income but I doubt very much that anyone living on a basic state pension, even with additional benefits, feels that they actually have enough to live on without compromising an awful lot.

Lot of pensioners in UK having a heat or eat debate every winter and not everyone can work part time until they die.

I'd love to find a way to make it possible but how are you going to pay for it?

Someone earning £30k pa (about average?) currently pays £3500 pa tax and £2460 pa NI . In a 40 year career that's £238400.

State pension is £134.25 pw = £139620 for a 20 year retirement.

That means someone on an average salary, who is fully employed for 40 years and lives to 80, contributes only £100k during their lifetime to cover schools, benefits, NHS etc etc

Makes me laugh when people say "we've paid in all our lives". The vast majority take out far more than they out in.

You’ve got a snowball in hells chance of early retirements becoming the norm.

We are living 13 years longer than we were at the time of the creation of the NHS, and the birth rate has dropped considerably since the baby boom years. We need more taxpayers not less.

Retirement age more than likely will be going up, not down.