DEFAULT RETIREMENT AGE: STROLL TO THE BEACH, NOT A JUMP OFF A CLIFF

EMMA SOAMES

SAGA MAGAZINE
PRESS RELEASE

July 29, 2010.

DEFAULT RETIREMENT AGE: STROLL TO THE BEACH, NOT A JUMP OFF A CLIFF.

Emma Soames, editor-at-large of Saga Magazine, says the real challenge surrounding the scrapping of the Default Retirement Age is to make the process more a stroll to the beach than a jump off a cliff.

Saga is supportive of government plans to get rid of the default retirement age – but she makes the point that this moves immediately into the new challenge of finding what makes a good retirement.

“That, for many people, means moving it from a cliff-edge decision – you’re in work or not - to one where people have options to go part-time, so retirement becomes a process of a stroll down to the beach rather than a jump off the cliff edge,” said Emma, 60.

“Thousands will welcome the announced end of the Default Retirement Age, a step Saga has long argued for. From October 1, 2011, workers will no longer be forced to retire and will have the right to work on until they decide to retire.

“The way forward must be stepped retirement by negotiation. Assuming good health and the desire to work on, millions of people in their 60s will want to continue to work part-time,” said Emma.

“Retirement will become a gradual process - a walk through the dunes rather than a jump off a cliff from full-time work.

“Our independently-conducted surveys of a panel of 13,040 over-50s show a great enthusiasm for part-time work living on a mixture of pension and earnings in retirement.”

Ends

Further information:
Iain Macauley
im@pressrelations.co.uk
07788 978800
www.saga.co.uk

Emma Soames, editor-at-large, was editor of Saga Magazine from 2002-2008. Previously she edited the Telegraph Magazine for seven years and before that was editor of ES Magazine, Tatler and the Literary Review.