Friends Life : report shows women delay retirement to support their adult children
A recent report from Friends Life shows parents are helping their adult children by more than GBP 3,000 a year because of rising costs of property prices, tuition fees and youth unemployment. The report, entitled ‘Working Women’ and part of Friends Life’s Visions of Britain 2020 series, reveals that rather than coasting towards a comfortable retirement, women in their 50s are working for longer than ever in order to give their adult children financial support. On average, parents have given their adult children (those aged over 21) £3,180 in handouts in the past year, with the figure rising to £4,840 for the middle classes (ABC1s).
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(Source: News Insurances )
Majority of workers unaware of 2012 pension reforms, research finds
Government and employers face ‘communication challenge’, says CIPD More than half the UK workforce is “totally unaware” of next year’s pension reforms which will see staff automatically enrolled into a retirement savings scheme, CIPD research has found. The introduction of auto-enrolment – part of a raft of pension reforms coming into effect in October 2012 – was not known about by 53 per cent of employees surveyed in the private and voluntary sectors.
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(Source: People Management )
More people having to delay retirement
The number of Britons forced to delay retirement into their late 60s and beyond has doubled over the past year as the rising cost of living hits home, a major study has revealed. Worryingly, one in seven over-65s say they still do not know when they plan to retire, while a third of those aged between 45 and 64 are unsure about when they can stop working, the research found.
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(Source: The Telegraph )
Britons are 'saving so little they'll need retirement cash from the children'
Millions of Britons will be forced to rely on handouts from their children when they retire, a leading expert at the Bank of England warned yesterday. In an alarming speech, Martin Weale urged Britons to wake up to the fact that their level of saving is too low and they are spending too much.
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(Source: Mail Online )
Coalition's big pension reforms set to leave average earners £6,000 a year short in retirement, experts warn.
Britons earning the average £26,000 salary will fall £6,000 a year short of a 'comfortable' retirement, even after the Government's radical pension reforms come into play, pension experts are warning. Two major pension reforms – auto-enrolment and a £140 a week state pension – will not provide the elusive 'silver bullet' in tackling chronic under-saving in Britain, with workers under increasing pressure to fund their own retirement.
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(Source: This is Money )
Older workers struggling to save for retirement
A recent article in the Times highlighted that the age group of 50-64 year olds were most likely to be hardest hit by the worsening economy. Ros Altman, Director General of Saga said: "This particular group has been squeezed from all sides and is seeing a significant deterioration in quality of life".
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(Source: Pensions Advisory Service )
Inflation pushes retired back into work
The rising cost of living has forced pensioners back into work as the consumer price index inflation hit 4.5 per cent, a survey by MGM Advantage has revealed.
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(Source: FT Adviser )
thebigword puts out recruitment call for older workers
One of the country’s fastest-growing and most successful companies, has put out a call for workers aged 40 and above to fill more than 30 vacancies. thebigword is a multinational translation and interpreting company which provides language services to national governments and some of the world’s biggest companies. Recently named as one of The Sunday Times 100 fastest-growing international companies, it is looking for a wide range of candidates with both industry-specific and more general skills.
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(Source: thebigword)
Employee apathy threatens to derail pensions auto-enrolment
Auto-enrolment is now taking its place on centre stage and with 80% of the UK workforce likely to become part of an occupational pension arrangement from 2012 onwards, industry professionals face the crucial challenge of making pensions valuable to employees. From a starting point of inadequate financial literacy, which has caused issues of distrust and indifference amongst the UK workforce, employers must now look at introducing fresh approaches that alter perceptions and remove the barriers to long-term retirement saving. Click here for more >>
(Source: HR Magazine )
Why retiring has suddenly become more expensive
The yields on fixed interest investments, such as gilts and corporate bonds, which are used to price annuities, have fallen to their lowest levels for many years. The debt crises in the US and eurozone has caused havoc in the financial markets.
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(Source: BBC News )
The value of on-the-job assessments when managing older workers Although Employment Minster Ed Davey hailed the abolition of the Default Retirement Age as ‘great news for older people, businesses and the economy’, not everyone agrees. As Mary Clarke, chief executive of Cognisco points outs, some business leaders and lobby groups have voiced concerns that businesses may be saddled with an ageing and incompetent workforce, incapable of performing their jobs, but unwilling to leave the workforce.
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(Source: HR Zone )
Over-50s jobless rate soars to highest level since 1995
The number of unemployed people aged 50 and above has soared to its highest level since 1995, according to official figures. Experts warn that they are among the biggest losers from Britain’s fragile jobs market.
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(Source: Mail Online)
Olive oil 'helps prevent stroke'
Olive oil can help prevent strokes in people over 65, a study suggests. Researchers followed around 7,000 people aged 65 and over living in three French cities, for at least five years. They found those who used a lot of olive oil in cooking or as a dressing or dip had a lower risk of stroke than those who never used it.
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(Source: BBC News )
Half of pensioners who retire this year will have nothing left to leave
Half of workers retiring this year fear their finances will be so stretched there will be nothing left for their families to inherit. The idea that retirement will allow people to enjoy their savings, indulge their interests and take sunshine holidays is dead for the vast majority of ageing Britons. Simply making ends meet, covering essential bills and care costs are expected to swallow up most, if not all, of their resources.
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(Source: Mail Online )
Half UK population will be worse off than their parents in retirement, finds HSBC
A generation of Britons faces a cash-strapped retirement as people ignore or refuse to respond to the changing nature of pension provision in the UK, a new report, The Future of Retirement, from HSBC shows. Members of the UK’s Ostrich Generation know they will live longer than previous generations and understand that traditional state and company pensions will no longer be so generous. However, despite fears that they are under-prepared – and with expectations to ease into semi-retirement in their mid-50s before stopping work at 62 – the majority are not making any plans about how they’ll fund their retirement.
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(Source: Pensions World )
Over-50s 'face longer in dole queue'
Over-50s who lose their jobs are more likely to suffer long-term unemployment than any other age group, according to an analysis by a leading think-tank. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that nearly half (46 per cent) of those out of work over 50 have been unemployed for at least a year, a total of 182,000 people, and up from 31 per cent in 2009.
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(Source: The Telegraph )
More Money in Your Pocket launches today (14 April)
During a time of unprecedented cut-backs and high unemployment, it is rare to hear of any cash going spare. So many people will be surprised and puzzled to discover that up to £5.4billion of pensioner benefits is sitting in Government coffers going unclaimed each year, while 1.8 million pensioners are living below the poverty line. Something is clearly going wrong.
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(Source: Age UK blog )
Easter Employment Figures a "Curate's Egg" for Older Workers
Commenting on the latest labour market statistics published today (Wednesday 13 April 2011), Chris Ball, Chief Executive of TAEN – The Age and Employment Network, says: “These figures are a bit of a “curate’s egg” – a mixed picture - for older workers. On the one hand we have a rise in employment and a drop in economic inactivity but this is set against a stubborn long-term unemployment rate.
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(Source: TAEN )
Most pensioners 'just getting by'
Rising living costs are causing hardship for British pensioners, with 58% saying they are "just getting by" or worse, according to research. A study for Age UK has found that 47% of over-60s class themselves as "just getting by", with a further 11% finding it difficult or "really struggling" to cope financially.
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(Source: Press Association )
The magic of the midlife mind
If you are over 40, I'm prepared to offer you a 100% guarantee that reading this column is going to make you feel very cheerful. For the full, calorie-free, feelgood experience you may have to read the book, The Secret Life of the Grown Up Brain, but I'll give you a taster.
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(Source: Guardian.co.uk )
35% facing poverty in retirement
MORE than a third of people retiring this year will be surviving on incomes that put them below the poverty line, it was revealed yesterday. Around 35 per cent of people planning to give up work in 2011 will live on less than £14,400. This is the minimum income that the Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimates a single person needs, says insurer Prudential.
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(Source: Express )
Saving for retirement - Knowledge gap
Lack of pension knowledge threatens poverty in old age warns John Jory, CRR, who urges more retirement education and information
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(Source: Pensions World )
Seven million grandparents adopt role of 'second Mum & Dad'
The financial pressures on Britain’s families means parents are struggling to cope with looking their children because they both need to work. It leaves grandparents stepping in to help out with everyday jobs, from childcare to cooking family meals, saving parents £33 billion every year.
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(Source: Telegraph )
DRA abolition imminent, but most businesses not ready for it, says survey
Less than a fifth of employers have made any preparation for the removal of the default retirement age (DRA) – although it comes into effect in less than 10 days. Only 16% of employers surveyed had started to make any provisions for the abolition of the default retirement age and only 24% agreed with the Government's plans.
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(Source: HR Magazine )
Aldbourne climber targets Everest – at 61
Former chief executive Simon Knighton, 61, is planning to climb Everest at an age when most men are contemplating retirement. If he conquers the peak in April he believes he will be the oldest person to have done so via the tougher North Ridge from the Chinese side.
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(Source: This is Wiltshire.co.uk )
Crash Course in: managing an ageing workforce
From April, people won't have to retire before they want to. In a way, that's good news, as data shows there will be fewer young recruits around. But how are you going to adjust?
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(Source: Management Today )
Built by Mature Workers: BMW opens car plant where all employees are aged over 50
Its name is a byword for providing drivers with every comfort – and now it seems BMW is taking the same approach with its workforce. A section of the luxury car manufacturer's works at Dingolfing in Southern Bavaria has been nicknamed ‘Altstadt‘ - German for Old Town - by the grateful employees who say they might otherwise be on the job scrapheap. Because Germany has a highly skilled workforce - but an increasing skills gap - BMW has taken the lead to get those laid off or in early retirement back on the production line.
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(Source: Mail Online )
Number of older people forced out of work reaches record high
The number of people retiring early has reached a record high as older workers are forced out of the competitive job market, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics found there were a total of 1.56 million retired people under 65 during the three months between September and November, up 39,000 on the previous quarter.
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(Source: The Telegraph )
Half of new pensioners who retire are too broke to stop working
One in two people who retire quickly realises that they cannot afford to stop working, alarming research reveals today. The report warns that Britain’s new ‘retirees’ are too broke to quit their jobs, and find themselves forced into desperate measures
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(Source: Mail Online )
Default retirement at 65 to be phased out
Employment relations minister Ed Davey says plan to phase out the default retirement age from October is 'great news' for older people, business and the economy. Employers will no longer be able to force staff to retire at 65 from October, the government announced.
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(Source: The Guardian)
Nest attempts to demystify ‘baffling’ pensions
The National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) has launched a campaign to demystify the often bewildering world of retirement income, amid warnings of a mounting ‘pensions crisis’ in Britain.
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(Source: Citywire )
Miriam O'Reilly wins Countryfile ageism claim
Ex-Countryfile host Miriam O'Reilly has won an employment tribunal against the BBC on the grounds of ageism. The 53-year-old claimed she had been unfairly dropped from the rural affairs show when it moved to a primetime Sunday evening slot in April 2009.
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(Source: BBC News )
If you're going to live to 100 – check your pension plan
Ten million of us will be centenarians – and as lives lengthen, retirement income is more important than ever
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(Source: The Independent )
Who wants to phone a financial friend? Hotlines and websites that can help
Contestants on TV quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? are invited to phone a friend if they get stuck on a tough question. And there is similar help available to consumers who find themselves battling with a sticky situation. There is a collection of financial friends out there - organisations that exist to help those with money problems, not to profit from them. Financial Mail has compiled a useful list of ten financial friends to add to your address book.
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(Source: Daily Mail)
Walking Speed Might Reveal How Long You'll Live
Creatures tends to slow down as they near death. But doctors don’t use this knowledge as a way of evaluating what’s happening to their patients as they age. Stephanie Studenski, a geriatrician who specializes in the care of older people, wants to change that by finding a way to measure diminishing walking speed.
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(Source: Voice of America )
How to sort out your pension in 2011
Huge swathes of us expected to live to 100, but will we be able to afford it? Dan Hyde helps you get your retirement planning on track this year...
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(Source: This is Money )
Max Hastings isn't worried about being a pensioner as he hits a milestone birthday, but how the young will have to support baby-boom generation
Last week I passed my 65th birthday, and according to the statisticians’ latest projections, that makes me a major hazard to society. In the year ahead, another 658,000 British men and women will pass the same milestone, the largest number since records began. We baby-boomers are likely to live far too long for anybody’s good, including our own: one in six, God help us, will reach 100.
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(Source: Mail Online)
Debt and pensions were Brits biggest financial regrets in 2010
A survey of 1000 UK adults by direct bank first direct has revealed that a large proportion of the population regret not taking a longer term view of their finances. Fifty-three per cent of UK adults stated that their greatest regret in 2010 was not paying off debts more quickly; while a over a third (37%) identified not saving for retirement earlier as their biggest financial woe. Eighteen per cent regret spending too much in the run up to Christmas and 14% regret spending too much on a partner.
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(Source: Easier Finance)
Pensioner insolvency rises fastest as baby boomers struggle to pay off debts
Pensioners are now the fastest growing group filing for insolvency as Britain's baby boomers struggle to repay debts carried into retirement.
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(Source: The Telegraph)
Record numbers to turn 65 in 2011... but baby boomers face bleak financial future, experts warn
Record numbers will celebrate their 65th birthday in 2011 as the ‘baby boom’ generation reaches retirement age. But experts warn many face a bleak future with too little saved up, small pensions and multiple debts including mortgages. For some, 65 will not mean retirement at all – but the start of an extended working life necessary to keep their finances in order.
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(Source: Daily Mail)
We need an NHS for later life
As the government predicts a steep rise in the number of centenarians, Michelle Mitchell says a health and care structure which treats older people with dignity and respect is vital
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(Source: The Guardian)
Why it’s ‘lunacy’ to shun your company pension scheme
A growing number of young people are turning down free money by opting not to join their employers' pension scheme
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(Source: Citywire)
Nearly one in five UK citizens 'to survive beyond 100'
Many people can look forward to a card from the Queen, the government suggests
Nearly one in five people currently in the UK will live to see their 100th birthday, according to the government. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said its figures suggested 10 million people - 17% of the population - would become centenarians.
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(Source: BBC News)
Living to 100: age cannot wither us
We are living longer than ever – so now is the time for society to make the most of the talents of older people, says Geraldine Bedell. If you like being alive, this is a very good time to do it. Half of all the people who have ever survived to the age of 65 are living today.
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(Source: The Telegraph)
One in six will live to be 100: Official figures predict 10m alive today will get royal telegram
One in six people in Britain will live to celebrate their 100th birthday, official figures reveal today. More than 10million of the current population will receive a royal telegram, with many even surviving until 110. Improved diets, living conditions and medical technology are driving the dramatic demographic transformation
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(Source: Mail online)
DWP: 2.2 million over 50s will reach 100th birthday
More than 2 million people who are already over the age of 50 will reach their 100th birthday, latest Department for Work and Pensions analysis reveals.
The department's research - based on ONS populations projections and life expectancy estimates - found more than 10 million people in the UK today can expect to live to see their 100th birthday, some 17% of the population.
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(Source: Professional Pensions)
Travel brand Bridge the World targets the over-50s
STA Travel, the student travel agency, has unveiled a new brand to target the over-50s. Created by digital agency Albion, Bridge the World has been launched with a new proposition, identity and website, www.bridgetheworld.com, as an extension of STA Travel. It will offer information for older travellers about flights, hotels, travel insurance, visas, and tours of Australia and New Zealand, among others.
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(Source: Marketing magazine)
Why are all older men so stupefyingly BORING?
A few weeks ago I went to a garden party hosted by an old friend. There were 30 of us there, all long-time chums aged 60 or older. I was having such a good time chatting and catching up that it was only later that it occurred to me there had been something strange about it.
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(Source: Mail online)
Growing Old: Ready or Not?
There is a sharp contrast between people’s positive attitudes towards growing old and their preparedness according to the results of a new international survey, Bupa Health Pulse 2010, published today by Bupa Health Dialog.
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(Source: Business Wire)
Longer life means 30 years in retirement, says Aviva
People starting work today could be retired for almost as long as their working life, putting increasing strain on their savings, according to research. Aviva's Real Retirement Report has found that pensioners will need to finance almost 30 years of retirement due to longer life expectancy.
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(Source: FT Adviser)
Managing an Ageing Workforce (September 2010)
This report developed by CMI and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) examines how line managers and HR managers are adapting to an ageing workforce. Just 14 per cent of UK managers consider their organisation well-prepared to cope with an ageing workforce, despite the impending abolition of the Default Retirement Age and the fact that a third of UK workers will be aged over 50 by 2020.
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(Source: Chartered Management Institute)
One in four women is relying on her husband's pension to pay for her retirement
One in four women faces an impoverished retirement because they are relying on their husband or partner's pension, alarming research reveals today. Experts warn that it is 'an extraordinarily risky strategy', which could end in disaster for millions of women.
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(Source: Mail online)
Retirement law needs clarifying
The Government needs to clear up some grey areas in the law before scrapping employers' rights to retire someone when they reach 65.
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(Source: Telegraph.co.uk)
Can a firm grip and good balance lead to a longer life?
Studies show that test subjects with good strength, speed and balance are likely to outlive their weaker peers. If you have a firm grip and can stand on one leg, it may indicate that you are heading for a long life, according to a new study.
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(Source: Guardian.co.uk)
Vintage TV launches on Sky and Freesat
Vintage TV is now live on Sky and Freesat. The channel, which launched on the 1st of September 2010, is dedicated to the music, culture and fashions from 1940 to 1989. Vintage TV is available on Sky channel 369 and Freesat channel 515.
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(Source: Radio and Telly)
Barings sounds warning over 'head in sand' attitude to pensions
Nearly half of the adult working population have never reviewed their pension plans despite the volatility of the markets in recent years. Pensions experts have warned millions of workers may have to work into their seventies to make up for bad pensions choices unless they get to grips with the scheme they have signed up for.
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(Source: Telegraph.co.uk)
New rules of engagement for older people and climate change
A new study by researchers in the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) at the University of York calls for better engagement of older people on climate change issues. The report, prepared in partnership with the Community Service Volunteers’ Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme (RSVP), urges the scrapping of stereotypes which suggest that older people are incapable of engagement, passive or disinterested in climate change.
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(Source: University of York)
Pension crisis means no retirement for 10% of Brits
The pension crisis facing Britain has led one in 10 Brits to give up on any hopes of retirement. The statistics from Baring Asset Management reveal that 10 per cent of the working population – equivalent to 3.5 million people – have no plans to retire, while 42 per cent are unable to plan when they will be able to retire.
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(Source: Fair Investment Company)
OFT raise awareness of rogue doorstep traders
There are traders who call at your door who are honest and genuine. However, some are not and can be extremely persuasive. Examples of bad practices associated with cold calling and doorstep selling include pressure selling, unfair contracts, overpriced or substandard home maintenance or improvements, phoney consumer surveys and bogus charity collections.
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Savers less prepared for retirement, survey reveals
Savers have become less prepared for their retirement this year, according to Scottish Widows 2010 Pensions Index.
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(Source: FT Adviser)
Number of people working beyond 65 soars
The number of people working beyond the age of 65 is rising at the fastest rate since records began, official figures indicate, as thousands of pensioners attempt to boost their income in retirement.
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(Source: Telegraph.co.uk)
Over 50s 'trapped in jobless cycle'
Nearly 170,000 people over 50 year olds have been unemployed for more than a year amid fears older workers are being trapped in a jobless cycle, new figures have shown. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced a 13% quarter-on-quarter rise in the number of people aged over 50 who have been unemployed for more than 12 months during the three months to June.
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(Source: Press Association)
