Retirement age

I have recently been offered a new job and when I got the contract, it appears that the employment will terminate through retirement at the age of 60. I was wondering if this is still standard in places. With the Government planning to raise the pension age to 68 if not longer, that could leave me with nearly a decade without access to a State Pension.

Surely if the Government want people to work longer, then they will have to do something about low retirement ages like this and make mandatory retirement ages if included in employment contracts to be at least 65. I know I could get another job at age 60 and continue working but how realistic is that?

I also realise that there are a lot of wealthy people out there looking forward to retiring at 60 but I don't think that will be me!

Most employments have removed retirement ages from new contracts, but the remaining ones are normally either too lazy to change old contracts, or because of the nature of the job requires early retirement. If the employer is using said age without good cause, then they may find themselves in front of employment tribunals. On the other hand, if the nature of the job requires it, then there are normally pension arrangements in place to cover this scenario.
transitional pensions for this scenario are often used to bridge the gap before state pensions kick in, but as they are on the way out, private pension planning might be a prudent approach to give the option of leaving work without having to be carried out. !!

finnegan101 said:

Most employments have removed retirement ages from new contracts, but the remaining ones are normally either too lazy to change old contracts, or because of the nature of the job requires early retirement. If the employer is using said age without good cause, then they may find themselves in front of employment tribunals. On the other hand, if the nature of the job requires it, then there are normally pension arrangements in place to cover this scenario.
transitional pensions for this scenario are often used to bridge the gap before state pensions kick in, but as they are on the way out, private pension planning might be a prudent approach to give the option of leaving work without having to be carried out. !!

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I would have thought every employment contrct should have one. Otherwise you could never get rid of staff and they could work there until they are 95. Imagine the certified sick leave!!

It's working for a bank so I won't be lifting bricks! I guess you could fight it as age discrimination if it is not standard in the industry.

An example of HSE contracts, used to have retirement date set at 65, but over the past couple of years, due to the changes in state pension age, this age limit has being removed, and not replaced with any upper age. The reason it has being removed is to address changes in society living longer. Medical consultants work away in private practice until their insurance companies say bye bye!!
if the employee isnt up to the work they can be dismissed, and sick pay will only work for a limited period, and if they have a sickness policy, this will have an upper age limit! so the only problem is the poor 68 year old doctors after consecutive 24hour shifts treating you!!! be afraid!!! be very afraid!!!

Sunny said:

It's working for a bank so I won't be lifting bricks! I guess you could fight it as age discrimination if it is not standard in the industry.

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I worked in the financial industry when I was still in Ireland and 60 was the expected age of retirement at my company, too. It's not just your physical ability that comes into play when working, you have to stay mentally sharp and able to cope with stress etc., too. Not saying that people over 60 aren't/can't do that but my impression was certainly that that was a big part of the reason - it was generally understood that the higher-ups wouldn't stay beyond 55 or so for that reason, too. Have to maintain the dynamic image or whatever.

I have seen companies with defined contribution pension schemes set the normal retirement age at 60 so they have no obligation to make pension contributions past that age.

Retirement age of 60 was always aspirational for people and requires people to have a lot of assets or else to die young. During the Celtic Tiger, everyone picked 60 as their retirement age when starting a pension, now everyone picks 65!


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie