Retirement retires - maybe

There has been a splurge of news about the way that older people are changing their views about the ‘R’ word.

According to the UK’s financial services company, Prudential: "”More than two million people are delaying retirement this year because of the global downturn and a fall in value of their investments – only 25% of those delaying drawing their pension in 2009 expect they will be able to retire before 2012, with an even higher number – 42% expect it will be 2012 or beyond before they can stop working, and 23% believe they will never be able to afford to retire.”

A recent YouGov report says that only a third of people aged 55-plus said they would retire at the date they had previously planned - 20% said they would be forced to work between two and four years longer, while 15% said they would have to work five or more years extra to make up the shortfall in their pension.

Things don’t sound that much different in the US. In a study conducted by Scottrade, only 32% thought they would be able to retire — ever — compared with 39% in a similar survey last year. Nearly 75% of Boomers fear full retirement will not be an option for them.

Unfortunately, the intention might be to continue working but The European Court of Justice ruled this morning that the UK’s law, where people can be forced to retire at 65, is not a breach of EU legislation – as long as it had ‘a legitimate aim related to employment and social policy’.

Needless to say, with UK companies falling over themselves to reduce headcount you can expect a lot of 65 year olds picking up their gold watch and heading for the door. Dick Stroud