State pension: Woman, 64, frustrated over state pension age increases | Personal Finance | Finance
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State pension payments are often a lifeline for individuals, and many will be holding out at work until they can receive the sum from the Government. However, some have experienced difficultites in continuing to work after 5. In part two of a four-part series this week, Express.co.uk is sharing the story of Cathie Cassidy, a 64-year-old retail worker from Bedfordshire. Cathie began working from a young age, and will have amassed some 45 years of National Insurance contributions by the time she reaches retirement age.
However, she also lives with osteoarthritis, a condition which impacts her day to day life, and sparks worry within her about how long she will be able to continue working.
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Cathie said: “We were charging towards 60, thinking ‘at least we can retire then!’. For people like me with physical conditions, we may not want to give up work totally, but by the time you get to 60, you could do something part time to supplement your pension.
“But then, it was if someone pulled this rug out from under us – saying we now have to work until 66.
“My health is deteriorating. What happens if the doctor tells me I can’t go to work, or I have to work part-time? I couldn’t afford to do that until retirement age – it would impact massively on my daily life.
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Cathie also expressed worry as she works in retail, an understandably physical role. Similar sectors, she highlighted, are the same and thus could bring about challenges for those who can no longer manage this aspect of working life.
She continued: “A lot of jobs are just inherently physical, and this can create problems. At this age, you can’t retrain – and you think there’s no way forward.
“You’ve really just got to keep struggling on and hope that your health will last until you get the chance to retire.
“For some people, that will sound a little bit dramatic, but it’s a reality because that is exactly how a lot of us are feeling at the moment.”
Cathie has just celebrated her 64th birthday, bringing her closer to the age at which she can finally retire.
However, there are also other preoccupations on her mind, such as the choices she could have made four years ago if her state pension age was set at 60.
She said: “If my health is good, then maybe I will decide to work part-time. However, that should be my choice.
“That should not be something which has been forced upon me at 60 to say I have to keep working now because there are no other options.
“I think the people who are over the age of 55 now are really getting a raw deal. It’s almost as if successive governments have gone to the trouble to save all of this up and then bash this generation for some reason.
“I really don’t know what we have done to deserve this.”
Petitions, then, to lower the state pension age, Cathie stated, are a good idea, as she believes the current point at which both men and women are able to retire is too high.
Notably, the Government only recently responded to a petition posted on the Parliament website calling for the state pension age to be lowered to 63, after it garnered over 10,000 signatures.
Its official response noted: “Successive governments and Parliaments have supported the increase in state pension age (SPa). Reducing it to 63 is neither affordable nor fair to tax payers and future generations.
“The state pension is funded through the tax contributions of the current working-age population. Reducing the SPa to 63 would therefore massively increase the tax burden of the current working-age population.”
However, Cathie agrees with the sentiment that there should be a certain level of flexibility on offer for individuals who have contributed throughout their working lives, saying: “If you’ve worked all those years, you should be able to go at 63 without a financial comeback.
“We’re shouting and screaming for help. I just feel really disappointed and let down. What was the point in all that work? It’s a horrible feeling.”
Cathie believes there has been a failure of successive governments to provide ample support for older people, and called for further action.
She concluded: “We all retire and get older, that’s a natural part of life. But for things to get better, people need to talk to us to ask how we’re feeling. We are being totally ignored.”
A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokesperson told Express.co.uk: “The Government decided 25 years ago that it was going to make the state pension age the same for men and women as a long-overdue move towards gender equality. Raising state pension age in line with life expectancy changes has been the policy of successive administrations over many years.”
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