People declare themselves fit to work for longer

New research from AIG claims that workers expect to be physically capable of doing their jobs until past their 68th birthday, beyond the age they can start claiming the State Pension even when it is extended to 67 by 2028.  Almost a third (31 percent) believe they could work into their 70s and beyond with one in 14 confident they could keep going into their 80s. 

The study claims that on average workers believe they will be fit enough to work until 68. Men are confident they could work until 69, while for women it is slightly lower at 67.  The older people are the longer they believe they will be healthy enough for work – over-55s expect to be able to keep going to nearly 73 compared to around 66 for the under-35s.

Their confidence in being able to continue work backs up changes to the State Pension Age which is due to be increased to 66 by next year for men and women and 67 between 2026 and 2028 and then to 68 from 2037.

Almost half (47 percent) of people believe the current average 21 years spent in retirement is just about the right amount of time to spend not working.  But there’s a variety of views in the research with around one in seven (14 percent) adults believing that 21 years of retirement is too long. In London 28 percent – twice as many as the UK as a whole believe it is too long. But it is bad news for others as one in four (25 percent) believe 21 years of retirement is not long enough.

AIG Life’s research claims that on average people expect to live to nearly 82 and to be healthy and active until around 77.3 years of age.