Who are they and what do they live on?

It says over 1m are people who have retired early (presumably not claiming benefits) which brings it down to 5.6m. Maybe they are SAHMs or self employed people not registered for taxes?

Ah yes, it refers to students further on, though plenty of students do work, of course. It still leaves 6.6 million not working and I assume not looking for work, otherwise I presume they’d show up in the unemployment/benefits figures. I can’t say I know many people who don’t work, though!

SueDonim

The BBC has an article today about the difficulties for over-50’s in finding work. I was quite shocked to read that a quarter of all people of working age don’t have a job. That seems a lot!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64441775

I think the fact that they have included students in that figure is very misleading though, as all over 16s who are in full time education must add up to millions, surely?

will most of them will be spouses that are economically inactive?

The BBC has an article today about the difficulties for over-50’s in finding work. I was quite shocked to read that a quarter of all people of working age don’t have a job. That seems a lot!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64441775

I retired at 59.Had intended to carry on running my own business until I got my state pension- still 2 years to go for that. But I was simply worn out.I worked outdoors and it was very physical. Plus I was pulled in different directions doing some early morning childcare for DD then the other end of the day sorting out my frail elderly mum.DH still works.He's no desire to stop yet.So we manage with me drawing down a small amount of a private pension and his earnings.We had paid off our mortgage do that helped make the decision too.
I've never been happier.Never bored and unlike dome of my friends haven't felt the need to pack my diary with non stop activities. With dogs to walk,a big garden and GC I love taking each day as it comes and being spontaneous.

This phenomenon of people over 50s retiring early during lockdowns and causing labour shortage is also happening in other countries.

I know quite a number who retire in their late 50s / early 60s - teacher, fire investigator, highway engineer, technician, quantity surveyor, even our roofer told me he intends to retire at 50.

I retire at 60 six months ago on a company pension,my husband has 2 pensions including state pension and we have passive incomes from rental property and an online website.

sf101

I retired at 62.5 and managed on my private pension, reduced for some of the reasons mentioned by MONICA. I had paid off the mortgage and saved hard whilst working once the kids were independant. And finally I get my first state pension payment tomorrow, I am going to feel so rich I will have to treat myself!

Many congratulations, sf101!

Aussigran We have always had to pay for dental here. It’s not free like in the UK. That’s why we are in private health funds. But you certainly don’t get the full amount back.

Dental is one thing that is not free in the UK (unless you are receiving certain benefits and able to find an increasingly rare NHS dentist)
We get free eye tests and prescriptions after the age of 60 and healthcare is free to all if you are prepared to battle the system and wait!

I agree that neither system is perfect.

I retired at 62.5 and managed on my private pension, reduced for some of the reasons mentioned by MONICA. I had paid off the mortgage and saved hard whilst working once the kids were independant. And finally I get my first state pension payment tomorrow, I am going to feel so rich I will have to treat myself!

I agree too. I'm five years into 'retirement', and don't regret it at all. I'm still not of 'pension age' according to the government, which seems crazy.

I don't 'do' a lot, but am always busy, and feel so much healthier for being able to get up when I wake, eat when I'm hungry and sleep when I'm tired. I have a couple of health issues, and I can look after myself so much better now.

Maggiemaybe I think you are right to value this time over additional earnings. We are doing that now. My husband feels like you;
Not going back to work was the best (work related) decision I ever made.

DH had his 65th birthday four days after I turned 60. We always thought we would retire the same week. As it happens, we did, but of course it was another 6 years before I got my state pension (and the bus pass he got at 60!).

I was very lucky - I was made redundant from a job I once loved but now dreaded going into every day, following a takeover. Our mortgage was paid off by then, our children all in their own homes and working, we only have one car and have never had a big house or bothered with updating it to the latest fashion etc. We do like our holidays though! At the time we’d two young grandchildren we wanted to help out with, and we’ve had three more since.

I’d a small local government pension, DH had his pensions and with our low outgoings we managed fine for the 6 years until my state pension clicked in. We still had our trips away, financed from savings.

Not going back to work was the best decision I ever made. I feel privileged to have had so much time with our grandchildren over the years. And I still remember the exhilaration of my 60th birthday, lying in my comfy bed listening to our neighbour scraping the snow from his car window down in the street below.

The work force is not a fixed number. Look how populations have risen over time, any period, 1,000 years ago, 500, even 50, yet jobs the number of jobs is not limited to the number working in 1023, 1523, 1973. Then there are all the new tech industries employing millions of young people and growing daily. The demand for medical staff is ballooning, although fewer shop assistants are required.

JaneJUdge I do not know how old you are, but the great chuck out into retirement in their 50s, was in the mid 1980s -mid 1990s, so most of us he did find ourselves out on our ears are now in our late 70s -late 80s.

I used to have a strong belief that us older ones should make room for younger people with mortgages and young families to support. I still feel that to a certain extent . The only thing is, a lot of younger ones don’t want the responsibility and that is one of the reasons they seem to want us oldies to stay on way past our use bys.

JaneJudge

I am alone as I don't know anyone who has retired early. I know a few women who are sahm to teenagers though, presumably they are economically inactive too?

I don't know early retirees either. I do know many forever sahm.

harrigran

I know a nurse who retired at 55 but then announced she was working in a hospice part time. In the last year she has had more holidays abroad than I have had in the last twenty years.

Perhaps working in a Hospice has made this nurse realise that life is short and she is taking the opportunity to travel while she is able to do so.

I retired early as well at 59 with an occupational pension. Fortunately got my state pension the following year. Like nanna8 I was sick of all the politics and stress around government targets etc.
I feel sorry for my children and grandchildren as the retirement age gets pushed ever higher.

I retired at 60 which was normal then. I had gradually lessened hours beforehand down to 30 hours a week. From the age of about 56 I couldn’t wait to retire, I was just sick of all the stress and nonsense associated with excessive government reporting requirements. I pity people working in my position now, it is even worse. Other ones I feel sorry for are today’s teachers - horrendous expectations and they deserve every cent they get.

I am alone as I don't know anyone who has retired early. I know a few women who are sahm to teenagers though, presumably they are economically inactive too?

Grantanow For many of the older of us, even if we paid into occupational pensions when we were young, it resulted in no pension when we got old, because if you worked for a company for less than 5 years, when you left you ceased to be a member of the pensions cheme and all your contributions were repaid.

In addition, if by any chance your company used a personal pension plan, so that the money wasn't paid back, the value of the pension plan was frozen at its value when you ceased contributing. I paid into a personal pension, through my employer between 1966-68. When I reached retirement age in 2003. I was told that this pension plan could provide me with a pension of £10 a YEAR and had a capital value of arround £220 after tax, around £180.

That money in 40 years with the Legal and General had not qualified for a penny of interest, nor any capital growth, from the rocketing value of the shares it was invested in.

The other thing that affected our abilities to contribute to a pension was that part time workers were excluded from pension funds.

But, as far as occupational pensions were concerned, I lost 5 years, to contributions being repayed, 2 years to a scheme frozen in value for 40 years before I drew it and 5 years to being excluded from the pension scheme because I was working part time. In total 12 years of employment when I was unable to contribute to a second pension in any form.

When, at 40, I finally got a good job with a good pension, I shovelled every penny I could spare into it, but again, I never got the pension I hoped for, because in the mass redundancies of the 1990s, I was made 'voluntarily' redundant into early retirement, losing 10 years of employment with the company and pension payments to take me to my early 60s. I did however invest most of my redundancy money back into the pension scheme to buy extra years. As a woman in my 50s, I soon found out how unemployable I was. However I did continue to make voluntary payments towards my state pension, plus, of course, I never paid the married woman's stamp always, the full NI stamp.

All these obstacles to saving for a pension have now been removed, payments are not refunded, part timers can join pensions schemes, but for women over 60 to have a good pension, it required not just a good job, but job stability, working full time and other things that do not fit with most of our generation of women's working patterns, moving between jobs in our 20s (applies to men as well), not working when our children were small and then working part time until some of us returned to full time work in our 40s only to be pushed into early retirement n the Great Shakeout.

Same here good NHS pension.
I wasn't the only one in my Dept either we were all between 55 -60.
One reason why Loads of experience staff have left the NHS.

We are the lucky ones.

My husband, the main earner, has retired a few years early. We (together) decided that the stress of his particular work before the pandemic was bad enough but once the pandemic came along it was the last straw.

We both miss the "comfortable" income and ability to have holidays but frankly this is better. Much better.
We don't get a state pension yet but would rather muddle along.
As someone upthread said, I think we can live on less than we think.
It must be impossible if you are totally reliant in the state.

PS I always advise young relatives to think very early about their pension opportunities. Remember that old newspaper advert about 'they tell me my job doesn't have a pension........unfortunately, I have no pension'. Was it the Prudential?