The Covid-19 pandemic has focused people’s minds on their retirement plans, with an increase in people wanting to give up work, and work for longer.
New research has found there has been a significant increase the number of people wanting to give up work between the age of 50 and state pension age. In October 2018 just 4 per cent of people stated this as a preference, but by October 2020 this had risen to 10 per cent.
Similarly the number of people who wanted to carry on working full time has also increased at twice its previous rate, from 38 per cent to 42 per cent.
However prior to the Covid crisis almost one in three people said they did not know what they wanted to do between the age of 50 and retirement. This now have fallen to just one in four (24 per cent).
This research, by Hargreaves Lansdown, found that since the onset of the pandemic men are more likely to say they want to start business in their last decades at work, but fewer women want to go it alone.
Hargreaves Lansdown personal finance analyst Sarah Coles says: “The pandemic has forced us to make tough decisions about retirement, and while a fifth of people still plan to gradually ease out of the workplace, it has fuelled a rise in all-or-nothing retirement plans.
“Men in particular have cemented their retirement plans, with the number saying they don’t know what they want to do falling by a third over the year, from 30% to 20%.”
She says the crisis has prompted many people to reassess their priorities and helped them make crucial decisions about working in their 50s and 60s.
“For some people, it has opened their eyes to the compromises their working life has forced on them, so they’re keen to leave it all behind as soon as possible. There has been a huge rise in women who want to stop work altogether, trebling from just 4 per cent the previous year to 12 per cent after they had felt the effects of the pandemic.
“For others, more time at home with their loved ones has reminded them how much they enjoy being out at work. Both women and men are more likely to say they want to work full time up to state pension age now.
In a huge number of cases, the decision has been underpinned by financial considerations. Big falls in income during the pandemic has forced some people to put less away for the future, or even to start eating into it, which means working full time for longer.”
Coles point out that the pandemic has forced many older people out of work altogether. The FCA found that almost three in five (58 per cent) people who retired between March and October 2020 did so because of Covid-19.
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