By Emily Stephens
The Department for Work and Pensions released figures that show that both men and women are continuing with work for much longer than before, but women have seen the change be more rapid than men.
On average, females are working until the age of 64, in a drastic reversal of the trend towards early retirement that marked the 1980s and 1990s.
The DWP stated that the average age of retirement for men is now 65.1 years, which is a rise of two years since 1998, but for women, the average age of retirement has increased by 3.3 years since 1998, to reach 63.9.
The figures have also disclosed how many people are now working way past the former state pension age of 65. The Department for Work and Pensions said that 10.4% of individuals are working beyond the age of 65, which is double the number in 2000, and the age of women working past the age of 65 has nearly tripled.
Pension experts have said that for some, working into their 60s is a choice that is highly rewarding and satisfying, however for others, the outlook is unfavourable. Rachel Griffin, tax and financial planning expert at Quilter said, “while working into later life might be an option for some and actually might be their desired choice, for many with health problems, this is frankly impossible or unwanted, creating a situation where you are forced to choose between poverty in retirement or working well into old age.”
Females in their 50s to 60s have been hit by the government’s decision to increase the state pension age from 60 to 66 for women, and some have lost their homes, while many continue to experience extreme stress and hardship. A recent survey by the pressure group BackTo60 found that a significant amount of the participants reported feeling suicidal, had attempted to take their own lives, or had self harmed.
Joanne Welch, one of the BackTo60 representatives said, “we feel that the government thought our demographic was low-hanging fruit that they could pick off without a fight, but there’s an increasing groundswell of fury coming the government’s way because these women are becoming politicised - and because increasing numbers are only now discovering they’re going to be affected; there are still women out there who don’t know their pension age has been set back.”
The figures have been released following on from protests over the government’s decision to increase the female state pension age from 60 to 65. At least 1,000 of the 3.8 million women who have been forced to wait up to an extra six years to get their pensions marched to parliament, with photos around their necks of hundreds more women hit by the change in state pension who could not get to the march because they could not afford the travel costs, work zero-hour contracts, or do jobs that would not give them the time off.
“These changes to the state pension age for women were cynical exercises by both a Tory and a coalition government to raise £30 billion from 3.8 million women,” said Leader of the Women’s Equality party, Sophie Walker, who also attended the march along with other MPs, politicians and campaigners.
“Many of these women didn’t find out about the pension changes until they literally went to get their pension or finally got sent an official letter 16 years after the change had been made, leaving them with no time to make alternative financial arrangements.”
“We’re not talking about the baby boomers,” she added. “We’re talking about women who stepped out of the workplace repeatedly to do unpaid caring work for their families and the government just blanked that unpaid work and took their pensions. These women have been tipped into impoverishment. It’s grossly unfair.”
BackTo60 have said that this march is just the start, and that they have a date for a judicial review, led by Michael Mansfield QC, which will seek to force the government to reverse its decision.
“The government badly underestimated us,” said Welch. “We’re now not only pursuing the judicial review, but we’re mounting a new battle arguing that the UK Equality Act 2010 is discriminatory for women because the government has’t incorporated a United Nations convention into it.”
The DWP figures highlight the astounding changes in the labour market for the over-50s over the last two decades alone. Men, on average worked until the age of 67.5 in 1950, but this fell consistently and rapidly through the 1960s to 1980s. Many call the era a golden age of final salary pension schemes and early retirement. Men are still not back to the position where they were in the 1950s, despite the pattern reversal in the late 90s.
The acceleration in working age for women, however, has been much faster. In 1950, they retired at the age of 63.9 on average. This fell to below 60 in the mid 80s, but is now back to where it was in 1950.
Partly a reflection of the economic cycle, figures show unemployment levels were much higher in the 1980s and early 1990s compared to today, but they also show the impact of women choosing to have children later in life and returning to work in their 40s and 50s.
We are set to see more marches and protests for just state pensions for women in the weeks to come.
Below you can watch the latest march take place:
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