Half of the over-50s will be forced to work until 77, warns report

Bad news: Nearly half of the over-50s will be forced to work until they are at least 77 to enjoy a comfortable old age, a report warns today

Nearly half of the over-50s will be forced to work until they are at least 77 to enjoy a comfortable old age, a report warns today.

The findings, from the respected Pensions Policy Institute, highlight the crisis facing millions of workers simply too poor to retire.

It warns that 45 per cent of workers aged 50 and above will have no option but to stay in their jobs for 11 years or more beyond state pension age – or see their standard of living collapse.

The age at which people stop working has barely changed over the past 30 years, according to the report. In 1984, a man typically retired at 64. Today it’s 65.

But the report heralds a social revolution, with workers retiring years, or even decades, after their parents and grandparents.

The state pension age is 61 and one month for women and 65 for a man, but they are both being increased to 66 by 2020 and 67 by 2028.



If the 11 years prediction from the institute is correct, retirement at 77 could become the norm for around 45 per cent of the population.

A further 5 per cent will have to work for an extra six to ten years after state pension age before they can afford to stop working, the report says.

Joanne Segars, of the National Association of Pension Funds, said the report’s findings would ‘dash the retirement hopes of an alarming number of people’.



Gloomy: The report heralds a social revolution, with workers retiring years, or even decades, after their parents and grandparents

She added: ‘Millions of workers are in for a rude wake-up call when they find they cannot afford to retire and instead see their retirement date slipping away into the distance.

‘Those who don’t want a fall in their living standards when they retire face a stark choice: work longer or save more, or do both.’



Under the PPI’s analysis, a person must have an income in retirement equal to between 50 and 80 per cent of their gross salary when they were working to be comfortable in retirement.