Many "Boomers" want to work after they turn 70

A new survey warns that many Baby Boomers (people between the ages of 58 and 75) are being forced to retire early when they would rather retire later, often after they turn 70.

Many people say they want to work longer so they can make more money in retirement and help their families. The report also found that many people want to get regulated financial advice before they retire for good.

The survey, which was done by retirement technology company Dunstan Thomas, also showed that as "intergenerational subsidisation" goes up, there is more pressure on retirement incomes.

The full report, "Exploring Baby Boomers' Lengthening Journeys to Full Retirement," combined market research, video interviews, and the results of a nine-month study of the experiences of UK Baby Boomers leading up to and during retirement.

The survey, which was done early this year, found that 44% of UK Baby Boomers were still working for pay at the time of the survey.

71% of those surveyed said they planned to work past the age of State Pension (currently 66 for them).

Those who were still working planned to keep working for an average of 4.3 years after they reached the State Pension age. This means that, on average, many of them plan to retire when they are over 70.

The average age at which women expect to get their first pension has gone up by three years, from 60.4 to 63.4. This means that women's retirement age expectations are now the same as men's.

Even though there are new laws against age discrimination, the report found proof that many "Boomers" were being forced out of full-time work before they wanted to.

Dunstan Thomas says this could explain why the age people expect to retire is so much lower than the age they want to retire.

Interviews with Boomers showed that many were forced to stop working full-time in their late 50s and early 60s.

The report also found that intergenerational subsidies are becoming more common, which is "significantly" cutting into Boomers' retirement income.

One-third of Boomers (33% of all Boomers) thought they would still help their children financially in some way after they retired, and 16% were already helping their grandchildren.

This group expected to keep helping out family members for an average of 9.6 years after they retired.

43% of Boomers have already taken out some or all of their Tax-Free Cash. Of those, 4% used it to help family members get on the property ladder, and just over 1% used it to help pay for a big event in a family member's life, like a wedding or honeymoon.

One percent put the money into savings for family members' school or college costs.

Adrian Boulding, director of retirement strategy at Dunstan Thomas, said, "Many Boomers are helping to pay for their children and, more and more, their grandchildren, and the amount they are likely to put aside each year for this purpose is in the thousands of pounds."

We found one case in which a retired woman paid the rent on her granddaughter's apartment.

"This level of help from Boomers should be looked into further because it has clear effects on how much money they will need in retirement to support themselves, their children, and other family members at the same time."

There were a lot of different kinds of pensions.

The report found that 24% had Defined Contribution (DC) personal pensions or SIPPs outside of work, and that 19% had DC pensions at work, like auto-enrollment schemes.

Almost half (48%) of the Boomers surveyed had a Defined Benefit (DB) pension from their jobs.

Boomers with DB plans expected to get an average of 51% of their total retirement income from these pensions, while those with only DC plans expected to get only 37% of their total retirement income from them.

When State Pensions are taken into account, Boomers found that all pensions will make up an average of 57% of the total retirement income of a household.

The report also found that the number of Boomers interested in transferring from DB to DC schemes went from 1% to 2% since Dunstan Thomas last asked this generation in 2017 if they were thinking about transferring out of DB schemes to access pensions.

Twenty-five percent of Baby Boomers plan to or have already used regulated financial advice to learn more about pensions before they retire.

Nearly half (46%) of those with DC pensions, including those with SIPPs, had or would get financial advice about their pension before they retire, according to the report.

This study found high-demand "hotspots" for regulated advice in the years leading up to and during retirement.

Setting affordable drawdown rates, getting the most out of retirement income, planning for inheritance taxes, and getting advice about equity release and downsizing were all hot spots.

Three percent of Boomers said that in the last two years of the pandemic, they were "forced into retirement earlier than they had planned because they were laid off or lost contract work and couldn't find new paid work."

During the pandemic, another 6% of Boomers retired earlier than planned for another reason.

Some of these people are part of the "Great Resignation" trend, which was caused by the long time people spent rethinking their lives during the pandemic.

Two percent more said they had lost their jobs because of the pandemic and could only find new ones with lower pay and less security. Because of this, they had to put off retirement.

The report also found that the recently updated Wake Up Packs and new Investment Pathways aren't getting Boomers very interested or involved.

The study found that 40% of Boomers didn't remember getting their Wake Up Packs, and 30% confirmed that they had definitely "not received the pack from their provider."