Retirement
Should I stay or should I go?
Once upon a time, everyone retired at 65 – those who were lucky enough to have a job anyway. Now, not so much. The proportion of older workers, particularly those who want to work beyond what was the traditional retirement age of 65 is forecast to grow significantly in the future. Maretta Dillon examines the options. As a society, we are getting older and living longer. It is estimated that by 2055 there will be 2.3 million people of working age in Ireland but about 4.9 million pensioners. It is a big challenge to meet their pension expectations. In Ireland, many people do not have personal or work pensions and so are dependent on the State Pension to sustain any standard of living in 30 Senior Times l May - June 2020 l www.seniortimes.ie
retirement. All of this explains why the State Pension age is increasing to 67 in 2021 and 68 in 2028. Bridging the gap until you reach the point at which you receive the State Pension is now a crucial question for a lot of older workers. Have no fear, the Government has produced
the thrillingly entitled document, A Roadmap for Pensions Reform 2018-2023, which provides a concise overview of where we are at. It was the focus of a recent meeting of CIPD (the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) which further explored the subject. A quick sidebar here and probably of less
