The future of retirement for couples

The biggest argument against increasing the state pension age has been because it impacts the poorest most IE those whose only source of income when they give up work is from the state. This is further exacerbated by the fact that these very same groups are less likely to experience as great an improvement in life expectancy as the rest of the population. Traditionally women have retired at 60 and men at 65 which means couples are able to enjoy retirement together from as young as 65. In the future,with the equalisation of state pension age at 66, this will mean for many couples, where the women are often younger, it might be 69 or 70 before they retire together as a couple.

This provides opportunities for services targeting the men who may be at home for several years while their wife works ie a reversal of the current position. It also suggests that employers need to consider providng sabbaticals/gap years/flexible options/ R and R, for people so that they can refresh and enjoy time off together long before they're both in their 70s.

2020: retirement age increased to 66 for all

So, the good news (?) from the Chancellor's Spending Review is that while extending the state pension age has been brought forward to April 2020, it hasn't been brought forward to 2016 as was originally rumoured! The pension age will be equalised at 65 for men and women in November 2018 meaning that women have a particularly raw deal as their pensions age is extended by 5 years from 2010-2018.

Trying to look at the positive side of this, we are living longer generally so a delay in retirement age should mean that we still have a good many years to enjoy in retirement. And, bearing in mind that as we get older society tends to write us off until the oldest generations become effectively invisible, maybe being "economically active" for longer will help to increase our visibility and value.

Strategies for older workers

The forthcoming abolition of the default retirement age has real implications for employers, particularly those with an older age profile of workers. There needs to be 3 clear strategies to deal with workers 1.staying beyond state pension age, 2.leaving and 3.incoming. All will be needed to ensure that employers maximise the performance of the talent available.

For those staying, employers will need to ensure that they have an effective performance management process in place, that their learning and development encourages on-going learning for all workers to update their skills and that inter-generational working and communication is maximised.All greatly benefiting all parties.

For those leaving, putting in place an employer supported retirement readiness programme will help workers to plan for a fulfilling older age encouraging them to think more positively about leaving, helping with workforce planning issues.

And the area which is often forgotten,making sure that the potential for older to come into the organisation is not ignored as many will the right skills and experience to improve the organisation's competitive position.

Countdown to retirement

You might be interested in my piece published in the Mature Times today about results from research about "retirement readiness" which I conducted recently. It showed that 50% of respondents, who indicated they were within 5 years of retiring, had not even started thinking or planning seriously about their older years. One respondent said about the questionnaire, "I just found this worrying. I suppose if I'm positive then it was thought provoking...but since I am so unready I found it depressing".

Employers need to really get their act together to provide their employees with support services to help them with their new life after full time work ends, so that they are more ready, and better equipped, to get the most out of this important time. This will become increasingly important to employers when a formal retirement age is phased out next year. See more at wwww.maturetimes.co.uk/node/11257

Equalities Act

The Equalities Act comes into force today. It's designed to draw together all the anti-discrimination laws with a view to simplifying and standardising the law and making them all easier to understand, that's the theory.

The Act continues to allow employers to have a default retirement age of 65 until April 2011 and then it will be phased out by October 2011. This means that employers really need to gear up their performance management processes and think long and hard about supporting older workers in making life:work decisions in their older years. This will be particularly important for organisations with an older age profile as it could help them with workforce planning.

The reality is most people will make decisions on when their pension is available, if they are lucky to have one. This may mean many will want to keep some form of work until annuity rates improve.

Another interesting aspect of the Equalities Act which could help older workers is that it is now unlawful to face invasive questioning about health and disability before a job offer stage in recruitment (unless intrinsically necessary for the role), IE effectively the end of the pre-employment health questionnaires.

Also, in terms of the provision of goods and services, the new Act protects consumers from age discrimination by making it unlawful to offer less favourable treatment on grounds of age without justification. Lots of exceptions too.

There's some pretty straight forward information summarising this all from the ACAS website

Bridging the World

The growing 50+ market is huge and still hugely under served. It is therefore interesting to note that STA, the Student Travel Agency, has recognised this is a potentially lucrative market segment and has launched a new travel agency called Bridge The World (see www.bridgetheworld.com). The spokesmen state that these are the people who are likely to have the time to travel because they are fully or partially retired. Another critical factor to their success has to be the fact that the 50+ are also more likely to have the money to enjoy long haul travel as the initial focus is on Australia, New Zealand, Asia and South Pacific.

It will be interesting to see how this business progresses. An initial observation is that the travel insurance only covers individuals up to the age of 70, which seems quite young and limiting. The other key aspect is what impact concerns about the environment will have on potential customers.

At least it is an example of a Business finally taking the older market more seriously.

Good news for Grey Hair

In the book called "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (page 63) he states, and I quote:
" I was amused to discover an evolutionary argument in mate selection that considers that women prefer (on balance) to mate with healthy older men over healthy younger ones, everything else being equal, as the former provide some evidence of better genes. Gray hair signals an enhanced ability to survive- conditional on having reached the gray hair stage, a man is likely to be more resistant to the vagaries of life. Curiously life insurers in renaissance Italy reached the same conclusion by charging the same insurance for a man in his twenties as they did for a man in his fifties...once a man crossed the forty five year old mark, he had shown very few ailments could harm him".

Maybe this could present a new marketing opportunity for manufacturers of grey hair dyes to expand their market to younger men!