Retirement on hold

A third of people aged over 50 who are employed in the private sector are now planning to retire later than they previously hoped, Aviva’s latest Working Lives report reveals.

The 2016 report – which comprises research among UK private sector employers and employees – has a particular focus on employees aged over 50, following the end of compulsory retirement and with the first anniversary of the ‘pension freedoms’ approaching.

Insufficient pension savings

In particular, the Aviva Report survey asked people what age they hoped they would retire at, before they turned 40. Now, aged over 50, more than one in three (36%) admitted they would be retiring later than they thought – by an average of eight years. Among those who will now retire later than hoped, just under half said it was because they had not saved enough into a pension.

Employers’ fears

The Working Lives report also revealed that employers’ fears about losing valuable skills because people will retire earlier due to the freedoms, are mainly unfounded. In fact, only 8% of respondents highlighted that the freedoms will result in them retiring earlier.

Aviva’s Working Lives report also questioned 500 private sector businesses of different sizes about a number of issues, including how prepared they are to deal with changing retirement patterns following the scrapping of the Default Retirement Age and the introduction of pension freedoms. The findings suggest the majority of businesses do not have plans in place, and that they are less prepared for staff retiring later (just 25% have plans for this) than they are for staff retiring earlier (29% have plans in place).

Click here to read the full report.