‘My health means that working to 75 is nonsense’
Bob Deans worked in local government, including in London and West Yorkshire, and opted to take early retirement at the age of 57. He turned 75 last June. He lives with his wife Anne in a village in Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales national park.
“The answer would be no,” says Deans when asked if he could have carried on doing his job until the age he is now. “I had a knee replacement just before I turned 65, so in that sense the state pension came at just the right time for me – and since then I’ve had both ankles repaired, so physically I wasn’t in a very good state for doing that.”
However, it’s his worsening vision, which is now “not good”, that would have made doing his job for another two decades a real challenge. As he says, “you need your eyesight” if you are doing a deskbound job.
“I’ve inherited glaucoma [a condition which causes optic nerve damage] in my left eye, according to the medics. I’ve also got a cataract in the left eye. The problem is reading, and because of my eyes I haven’t driven for six years.”
He says part of the reason he opted to retire at 57 was “because both my and my wife’s fathers had died and our mothers were left on their own”.
He believes that setting a blanket state pension age of, for example, 75 “wouldn’t work properly. People’s circumstances are so different – it’s very difficult to lump everyone into one group. It doesn’t take account of whether people are physically capable of doing it. The trouble with the state pension is that it doesn’t think about individual situations – it can’t.”
‘I am 74 and despite a stroke I still work eight hours a day’
Arthur Tinson from Stamford Bridge in East Yorkshire left school at 15 to work on his father’s farm, and has been there ever since. Now 74, his two sons do much of the heavy work on the 400-acre arable farm, but he’s not planning on retiring any time soon.
“I will be 75 in September but I haven’t retired. I am a farmer. In spring I’m ploughing the land and getting the corn into the ground, and at the back end I’m combining and harvesting.
“I am reasonably fit, although I had a stroke two years ago, when I was 72. I ended up in the infirmary where they operated on my head. Three months later I was active again. The nurse said I’d made an amazing recovery. I have a slight vision impediment in my right eye now, and for that reason they won’t let me drive on the road anymore, which is very awkward because I live six miles from anywhere.
“I was part of the local fire brigade for 36 years, and I was in charge of it for 25 years – that was as well as farming. But when I was 55 I had to retire. I didn’t like that. I walked away crying. It was traumatic to go from being very much wanted to nobody wanting you any more. I felt like I had been thrown on the scrapheap.
“If I was in an ordinary job and not self-employed, which I have been all my life, I wouldn’t like having to work until I was 75. But as long as I feel able to, I’ll carry on. You’ve got to occupy your mind with something haven’t you?
‘Try doing 17-hour shifts when you are 75’
Andy Mollison, 76 and from Linton on Ouse, York, retired from his role as an RAF air traffic controller at 55. He went on to work as subcontractor for the RAF, keeping the airspace clear from birds. He retired at 66.
“If someone is fit and healthy then working until 75 is no great age now. But I would have found it pretty tough to do my old job up to the age of 75. It wasn’t difficult or strenuous per se, it was just very, very time consuming. When the pilots were flying at night I would be on a 17-hour shift. Some days I’d start work at 7am and come home at 3am the following morning.
“I retired when I was 66. I could have gone on for another four years at least, but I just got fed up being messed around by the company. Before that I was in the RAF for nearly 32 years and worked as an air traffic controller. I had to retire from there at 55, which was the right time. I’d begun to go deaf and my eyesight wasn’t as good as it once was. If I’d been forced to stay beyond retirement age I would have put the pilots at risk; I wouldn’t have been able to keep them safe.
“My wife is 71, she retired when she was 60. She definitely couldn’t work now – she’s not fit enough. She’s slowed down and has asthma and lots of sickness. She couldn’t have possibly worked until she was 75. I know a lot of people like that, they just couldn’t manage it.
“When you’re older your ability to problem solve becomes more difficult, because as you age your brain slows down; and when your brain slows down, all your other functions slow down too. And that brings problems with it.
“For me it’s my body that’s slowing down and taking my brain with it. My mind is fine, it’s just my body. I keep thinking of things to do, and it’s my body that says ‘don’t bother mate’.”
‘Raising the retirement age is a good idea, but 75 isn’t realistic’
Mike Palmer, 75, from Faversham in Kent stepped down from his training consultancy business seven year ago.
“I retired when I was 68 from running my small training consultancy business which ran training events. I’d been self-employed for 25 years so would have been almost unemployable by anyone else. I could have kept going but there were other things I wanted to do with my life – like developing my hobby as a woodturner.
“I think that if I found a different role I could have continued until at least 72, but that would depend on my health and what it was that I did. I think a longer working life is a question of attitude and expectation – I still feel fit enough to work but notice that I get more tired, so I would want to do part-time working to pace things.
“I think raising the pension age is an excellent idea to prolong the working life of people now and in the future – but I don’t think it’s realistic to carry on with hard physical work much later than 70. But working in an office or in retail could be a very positive experience for most people and would lead to prolonged life for those in good health. The number of people who retire, do nothing and drop dead quite soon after are legion!
“The pensions crisis can be helped if all employees – and their employers – start contributing as soon as they start working. Leaving it to individual initiative is hopeless. Small contributions started early is the only way to build up a pension pot.”
‘50 years on the railways is enough’
Terry Murphy from Bexleyheath, London, now 76, retired at 65 after a half-century working for British Railways and its privatised successors
“It was a very physical job. I was often on the tracks in my role as a safety officer, and working with the police and fire brigade. There was a lot of weekend engineering work too. I started at age 15, earning £3 6s 6d, and 48 hours a week was the basic. I do feel for younger people today who might be expected to carry on past 65. It’s down to the individual, but it shouldn’t be forced on them. I suppose some people have to carry on because they still have mortgages at that age.
I was in a safety-critical job and just couldn’t have continued into my 70s, even though my health has been OK. My wife retired at 60, then went back to work but had to pack it in after a knee operation. You tell me that someone who has had a hip operation in their late 60s can expect to carry on working? If your health is there you can carry on, but if not it’s impossible. But you do have to keep yourself busy. My wife said “what are you going to do now you’re retired?” So I joined the Bexleyheath Pensioners Forum and have been doing that for 11 years now.”
‘I’m 74 and keep working – but only part-time’
Claire Cox, 74 and from Ripon, retired as a primary school teacher a year early at 59 due to a family tragedy. She took up part-time work at the town hall and has been there ever since. She says that as long as she has her health – and isn’t sacked – she’ll go on as she enjoys it so much.
“I retired at 59. There is no way I could have taught until I was 75, it would have been physically exhausting. I think mentally you slow down too, but you’re not aware of it. Since leaving teaching the most I’ve ever done is three days a week; and I now just do a day-and-a-half. I like working, I really enjoy the camaraderie. I like being active, I like being busy. I think if I hadn’t been a teacher and was, say, working on the tills at Morrisons, I’d have been quite happy to work until I was 75. But teaching is a physical job and more suitable for younger people.
“Personally I think you should be allowed to retire gradually, where initially your days are reduced. That would be the ideal, and great if that could be accommodated.”
‘I work part-time now – full-time at 75 would be too much’
Graham Edwards, 75, is still working part-time for the agricultural supply business he set up 30 years ago. He does it out of interest rather than necessity. The rest of the time he cares for his wife, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease.
“The reason I am working is because I have a business of my own and have an interest to see it keeps on going, but it’s my son that runs it. I don’t go to work every day because my wife isn’t well.
“There are no set days and I only work about six to 10 hours a week. If the government said I had to work until I was 75 I would have struggled – because my responsibilities are now at home looking after my wife. I think my brain is good enough to see what needs doing, but at 75 I am getting slightly weaker and I’m not quite as fast.
“Even now, as a person who has driven all my life, up and down the M1 on a weekly basis, I’m not as alert as I once was, say when I was 55. I wouldn’t like to think about me doing that kind of thing now.
“I am a diabetic but I’m fit. It was only 10 years ago that I went to the base camp at Everest. It was then that I handed my business over to my son. To be truthful, I got to the age where I wanted some good holidays. So my wife and I travelled to New Zealand, Russia, Canada and all over the place; and it’s a good job we did take advantage when we could, because my wife couldn’t do it now. Her Parkinson’s came on about three years ago when she was 70. She stopped work when she was 65 and had about five years when her health was fine before she deteriorated. There would have been no way she could have worked until she was 75.”
‘Being an older worker is all down to attitude’
Bill McPherson, 76 and from New Malden, Surrey, is one of the 28% of B&Q workers over the age of 50. Older workers have resulted in 18% higher profits and six times lower staff turnover, says the group. But he’s far from being the DIY chain’s oldest employee: that award goes to Stanley Collins, 91, who you’ll find working at its Guildford store.
“I have worked three days a week in the garden centre at B&Q for two years and thoroughly enjoy being part of a team. The job keeps me active as I help to unload deliveries, and estimate that I walk between two and three miles each time I am at work. There is great camaraderie and age has never been an issue among the team. I think that being a successful older worker is all down to attitude; people need to be motivated and embrace the stimulation that work brings, and find an employer that supports your individual needs.”
B&Q HR director Helena Feltham adds: “We’ve been championing older workers since 1989 when we successfully trialled a store staffed entirely by older colleagues. Benefits of employing older workers are that they have greater life experience, a passionate desire to serve customers, and a real confidence in passing on their knowledge and skills to customers and other members of their teams. They bring a positive energy and are motivated by the flexibility to balance work with other interests.”
Compiled by Juliet Stott, Rupert Jones, Sarah Ewing and Patrick Collinson
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