CIPD poll says over-55s are ‘braced’ to work until they pass 70

One of the highlights from the CIPD’s annual ’employee attitude’ survey relates to the expectations of working in later life:

“In a survey of more than 1,600 UK employees, more than a third (37%) of all workers believe they will have to work past the widely accepted retirement age of 65, a figure which jumps to 49% among workers over 55 years old. Among those who predict they will work past 65, the average age they expect to actually retire is 70.”

The press relates highlights both ‘mental fitness’ and money ‘for holidays’ as motivations for this belief, but I would suspect that these are selected from a list of options provided in the survey rather than tapping into anything more meaningful for the individual respondents.  However it was particularly worrying that the poll seemed to suggest that there is still a lack of knowledge about changes to pensions age and entitlements in the UK.  For example it was said that “48% of 35–54-year-olds are still unaware that the state pension age is going to increase from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028”.  Of similar concern is the finding that most respondents felt that their organisations were doing very little to support older workers staying on in the workplace: “one in four (25%) employees believe that their employer is prepared to meet the needs of workers aged 65 and over”.

While this is a fairly simply survey, some of these figures should be of concern to employers and government, particularly in terms of the preparedness we are expected to make for our later life.  They also highlight the traction of terms such as pension and pensioner which have long been associated with state support in later life.  Much will have to be done if that stereotype is to be tackled.