On Tuesday Staying at work is not just for the royals
IT probably comes with the territory of being a revered monarch who is loved pretty much the world over, but I couldn’t help feeling surprised by news that, days after having to cancel an overseas trip due to illness, the Queen was said to be ‘back at her desk’.
HRH is now 95, of course, and when you hear news of stays in hospital, and the like, you can’t help but feel slightly concerned. So I did wonder whether going ‘back to her desk’ would be what she needs right now.
To be fair, she’s probably not come back to find 5,000 emails that demand attention and an in-tray of work which someone else decided they couldn’t manage. But even then, making a 95-year-old do anything but enjoy a well-earned rest seems unfair.
It seems obvious that retirement is simply out of the question when you are royalty, despite the incredible length of service which the Queen has managed to achieve.
It did make me wonder how many of today’s workers who are without a solid retirement plan in place might just have to carry on working, too.
Not for the same reasons as Her Majesty, of course.
Instead, retirement, like many other things, seems to be getting further and further out of reach for many people.
With the age at which the current generation can clamber on to the housing market getting steadily higher, there are plenty of people who will be paying off their mortgage well into their 60s, for a start.
That, together with high costs of living, is inhibiting the amount the current generation are able to save for their retirements.
If you are still facing 20 years of mortgage payments, stopping work – and having enough money to even survive – must seem like an island a very long way away, shrouded by plenty of clouds.
Even then, if you are able to put away a little every month, the historically low interest rates have left annuity values at rock bottom, so the amount you get back off your pension sum – unless you are on a final salary scheme – can seem paltry.
The problem for those seeking to retire even at the statutory age is that it is the younger generation who face the job of paying the taxes which fund the state pensions – and driving the economy which pays the private funds.
So a jobs crisis for the younger generation does not bode well for the chances of a decent retirement for anyone in their 40s or 50s.
Unlike my parents, it looks likely that I will be still working at least to the age of 70, and probably well beyond, and I would be surprised if I am the only one. It was in 2002 – now almost 20 years ago – that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reported that the trend of early retirement was starting to reverse, and that people were starting to work well into their old age.
A certain amount of work when you get older does not seem a terrible idea, as it would give you some spending money while also giving you the camaraderie of your workmates and help keep your wits and your health relatively sharp.
Older people, too, have a wealth of experience and wisdom to be able offer the next generation of workers in many sectors. So firms may see it as beneficial to allow people to carry on working longer to pass on some of that knowledge to the workforce.
The flip side of that argument, of course, is that fewer people heading into retirement leaves fewer jobs for younger people to pick up – and a continuation of the cycle of being forced to wait longer for everything.
Like HRH, it may be that I am ‘back at my desk’ for the foreseeable future.
It looks likely that I will be still working at least to the age of 70, and probably well beyond