Choose to retire? We don't have a choice
By Joyce Glasser - 08/08/2008
I agree with Mike O’Brien’s speech (see link below); it’s difficult not to. My question is, why have our politicians waited until the last minute to recommend that we ‘start’ thinking about these demographic and socio-economic changes? Where was that leadership 10 years ago when there was time and money to make policy changes – something there isn’t now.
Where was that leadership even two years ago? Introducing a one-size fits all mandatory retirement age of 65 just two years ago is the equivalent of abolishing the 10P tax bracket at the crest of recession with rising food and fuel costs. Both are the wrong policies that show no vision. Allowing employers to force people into a false retirement, that spells poverty for thousands, is hardly a policy to help older people become self sufficient.
There is moreover, one aspect of Mr O’Brien’s speech that reveals an antiquated or misguided way of thinking. He states: ‘it might also mean choosing to work after normal retirement age – as 1.3 million people already do -- not just to earn some extra money, but also for the social interaction’.
There are three misconceptions in this statement. The first is the word ‘choosing’. Many people have no choice about retiring or not; particularly with the national default retirement age that gives employers, not employees the choice of when to retire. The second misconception is that there is a ‘normal retirement age’. There is no ‘normal’ retirement age. We all have different patterns of work and different financial circumstances and different life style choices. The third is that older people work to earn ‘some extra money’.
Many older people must work to earn a living and pay the rising cost of living; ‘extra money’ is insufficient; it’s a matter of putting food on the table and paying bills and, yes, even the mortgage. It is perhaps difficult for any MP or Minister with a good salary and final salary pension to appreciate the insecurity of those facing retirement without occupational pensions.
MPs can use taxpayer’s money to pay off their mortgages and fix up their kitchens in their second homes. Meanwhile, Leaseholders can still have a £300,000 home forfeited – be made homeless – for non payment of a £500 service charge. Some older people will work to top up their savings, that is, for ‘extra money’, but increasingly, older people are seeking a sustainable living.
Joyce Glasser