Has anyone been thrown into retirement

[hattie43]

Without planning it .

Today it was announced at work that our jobs are being restructured and we have to choose an option , then be interviewed and they select the best candidate. If you don't get your desired job they'll place you in what's left . I have looked at the job descriptions and not one looks enticing so am going to resign .

I am a bit shocked as I always thought I'd plan to retire and have a structure in place before leaving but this isn't possible now .

Anyone else has no notice of retiring and how did you approach it . I'm late 50's and don't feel ready for retirement.

Surely they should offer redundancy. Don't resign.

Definitely don't resign. If your job no longer exists they should offer redundancy. Call ACAS to better understand your rights.

It's all under the umbrella of ' admin ' so very difficult to say the job is not available but it's tasks are not what I do now , it's hard to describe but currently each site has an admin who does what that site need . Now they want to centralise the admin function broadening the tasks and changing your direct reports . This is not for me and that's why I'd really like to hear from people who fell into retirement rather than planned it .

No don't resign. How long have you been there?

I was 58 and toying with taking early retirement, after a colleague and friend had decided to do it. This was in September. In late October I was diagnosed with Lung cancer. I never went back to work.

In a way, the diagnosis did me a favour. I enjoyed 10 years where I was fairly healthy (swimming 40 lengths four times a week, walking for 45minutes on the same days). I've now had four years or so of poor health. I'm grateful for those 10 years. If I'd hung on until I was 65 I would only have had four or five years of good health, not the ten I enjoyed.

Can you afford to retire? If you will need benefits please be aware that you will then be job seeking with appointments in the job centre and expected to take any reasonable job. I think you must have about ten years still until state pension age.

Yes luckily I can .

But if you are late 50s and don’t feel ready for retirement then why retire? If you don’t wish to interview for any of the jobs on offer at your company then why can you not apply for jobs elsewhere? – why do you think your only option is retirement?

Definitely try to get them to make you redundant instead.

I was made redundant at almost 59, I was given 3 months notice so had time to take it in. My firm was purchased by another and some employees kept on, but fortunately they didn’t want me. It took me about 6 months to get used to not working. My DH had to give up work 2 years later due to having a triple heart bypass, so the pair of us are now retired, but didn’t envisage this being our life. We now have a dog which is something we always wanted, but couldn’t when working. It’s fortunate that we enjoy each other’s company and due to inheritance we are ok financially.

Do not resign.
Look on the acas website and see what it says as you're potentially going to do yourself out of redundancy pay if you resign (as well as not being eligible for any benefits for months).

Are you in a union? Seek their advice if so. If not, speak to Acas.

As others have said DO NOT resign - they need to make you redundant and give you redundancy pay.

My understanding is that you just sit tight. Your job disappears, you don't apply for any of the new jobs and then the ball is in their court to make you redundant. But please take advice, I'm not an expert.

Redundancy isn't a bad thing to happen if you're financially secure, but do think about what you want to do with your life from then - everyone needs a purpose and suddenly going from employment to nothing can be a huge shock, it's a major life change.

Your situation is similar to my husbands. He's just retired on ill health groups to focus on his health, long term, scary conditions. I'm hopeful he can improve and have some good years ahead.
I hope you are keeping as well as you can be x

Take one of the jobs
go ‘sick’
get medically retired
💅
don’t let the fuck over your financial future

If they have offered you an alternative role as part of these changes then you cannot claim redundancy as they have not made you redundant and it seems like they are being strategic with this to avoid paying out redundancies.

@hattie43 I think that I may be doing this and will need to make a decision next week. I have been thinking about retiring but like you, we are having a restructuring and it made sense to wait to see if redundancy was available. Unfortunately the restructuring has been delayed.

I was still thinking that it might be worth it, but then last week, my line manager told me that they were minded to transfer the responsibility for my line management to a person who is one grade higher thank me (usually the gap is far higher in my organisation). I really don't think this would work for me and that it predicts the structure that will be put in place (and redundancy is probably unlikely). I think that I surprised them by saying that I understood that they had chosen to make this decision, but that I would be leaving if it went ahead.

I feel that they have probably done me a favour, as it is helping to make a decision that I have been postponing.

DO NOT RESIGN!!!

They'll have to make you redundant.

I wish I’d done this, I resigned with nothing but have just found out several people were ‘let go’ with full redundancy pay after a period of sickness with stress due to the new role. The redundancy pay was two years salary for me as I had 30+ years service.

Yes I have just done it - 2 weeks ago, I just couldn’t deal with the working situation any more. I handed my notice in, am now on 3 months gardening leave. I will be 59 when I go. My plan is to do a bit of freelancing or get a lower stress job for a couple of years in the autumn and be semi retired.

I am quite stressed about it but have 3 months salary to get my head around it and we can just about afford me not to work. DH will retire in 2.5 years time.

I was "thrown" into retirement but luckily it was always my long-term plan to go early so this just brought it forward by three years.

Was always planning to go at sixty and made additional (private) pension payments to facilitate this.
Restructuring at work made it unrealistic for me to stay so went at fifty-seven but went with a payoff and started my pension immediately.
Now living my best life. Was not expecting to go when I did but soon got my head around it and brought forward all my retirement plans.

Yep .. made redundant 18 months before I had pencilled in retirement.. for about 24 hours was freaked out with lack of prep time .. no hobbies, no plans, ego and esteem wrapped up in job .. most people thought I would get another job but have never looked back and am almost grateful it happened as I think I would have too scared to actually retire.. I now live a fabulous and fulfilled life and embrace every day rather than endure work .. there is so much more to do than work and I am enjoying finding that out