Pension age in women

[Nellodee]

I’ve been thinking about some of the problems we have in the U.K. currently - the social care crisis, childcare costs. I had a thought that these things are greater problems due to the change in retirement age from 60. Clearly, expecting women to take on childcare and social care duties is regressive, and not all women would spend their sixties caring for their neighbouring generations, but a lot would have. We got rid of that, and we didn’t seem to effectively replace it with anything else.
Does anyone else think there is a connection between current issues and the change of retirement age? And the question that is puzzling me - is it economically more cost effective as a country to pay pensions earlier than later if a large enough proportion of those retiring spend much of their free time caring? And I’d this is the case, how could you re-implement it, but in a less sexist format?

Not sure how this relates but the Government has been going on about how too many older people not yet at retirement age are "economically inactive" - and not because of illness or disability.

Wonder if these are older people who are in fact helping out as carers or childcare.

Then the Government spokesperons went on about all the aid older peole would need to manage to stay in work, be never stating the reality for many older people.

ie that no one will employ them even if they have better skills and experience than university leavers. Its like that time that stacking shelves at B&Q was meant to be the height of achievement for an older person to reach.

Any be the way, I dont think as suggested in the OP that it is the retirement age that means there aren't spare relatives around to do unpaid work for other family members.

It has much more to do with the fact that women now expect and need to be part of the work force. Society got too used to maiden aunts and spinsters just being seen as a source of free labour for other family members.

If there is a problem with affordable child care and a complete lack of social care, that is for the Government to fix.

I for one can't get upset about the "sexism" of women retiring before men, given the role women continue to play across society. Cry me a fucking river, men:

Don't women statistically enjoy fewer years of 'good health' or whatever they call it than men too? Correct me if wrong? If that's true, I'd say that's a reasonable argument for a lower retirement age for women in itself.

I think that as women not only go out to work but continuew to do most of the domestic work, they should by rights have a period of retirement twice as long as men!

But women have lived longer than men, though it seems that that gap is closing:

" ... In 2020, period life expectancy at birth in England and Wales was 78.6 years for males and 82.6 years for females; this is 1.2 years lower for males and 0.9 years lower for females than in 2019, reflecting very high mortality in 2020 during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. ... "

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/articles/mortalityinenglandandwales/pastandprojectedtrendsinaveragelifespan