Pensions - Articles - Government to encourage people to work past age 65

 Commenting on Government plans to encourage people to work past age 65, David Macmillan, Managing Director at Aegon said:

 “Two factors mean that is very likely that in the years to come, most people will work past age 65. Firstly, life expectancy has been increasing at 2.5 years per decade and on average people can expect to live into their eighties. While it’s great news that we are all living longer, this means that people’s savings will need to last much longer. People can either choose to keep working for longer, or save more at an early age but either way our research indicates that savings rates urgently need to increase as only 7% of people in our survey are currently on track for the retirement income they’d like.

 “People already accept the need to work to a later age and our research indicates 50% of people intend to opt for a phased retirement whereby they gradually reduce the number of hours they work before fully retiring.

 “New reforms which come into place in April next year mean people will be able to access their pension from age 55. We support this increased flexibility and for some people it will make sense to access their cash early, however this needs to be balanced against the need to make savings last over what could be a very long retirement for many people.”