Covid-19 - 1.5 Million Brits may need to Delay Retirement

Many people will have to change their retirement plans or even cancel them indefinitely according to an article published last week by International Adviser.

A survey targeted at adults in work over 50 years of age was carried out by Legal & General Retail Retirement and concluded that 1.5 million will end up delaying retirement due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Around 15% of those surveyed think that they will need to delay their retirement plans, and 26% said they will have to keep working on a full or part-time basis after retirement age.

On average, those who will need to delay their retirement expect another three years of work to be added on to their initial planned retirement age, and 10% may have to delay their plans by five years or more.

The survey found that those over-50’s who have been furloughed or received pay-cuts make up the majority of those who will need to delay their retirement. 38% of those furloughed during the pandemic expect to have to continue working indefinitely.

Chris Knight, chief executive of Legal & General Retail Retirement, said: “The financial impact of the covid-19 pandemic seems to be particularly pronounced for people aged over 50 who are still in work. While some people will choose to work for longer, or indefinitely, the key consideration when it comes to this research is that it seems this decision has been driven by the financial impact of the pandemic, rather than personal choice. We know this is a key stage in people’s retirement planning so seeing a material impact on your household income will naturally lead to pessimism about achieving your retirement goals. While it would be naïve to say that these financial issues will not have an impact on people’s ability to retire, it’s important for people to have a strong understanding of the options available to them before concluding that their retirement needs to be delayed or forgotten indefinitely.”

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Source : https://international-adviser.com/