Retirement before State Pension Age

Researchers exploring what retirement is looking like for your generation have found that a third fewer of you were in the labour market at age 62 than at age 55.

What we asked you

In the Age 55 Survey, we asked you questions about your employment status, finances, health and family situation. We also asked you about these things in our online surveys during the Covid-19 pandemic. Researchers at UCL looked at this information to see how people’s circumstances were impacting their working lives as they approach State Pension Age.

Who had left the workforce by 62?

The researchers found that at age 55, four fifths (80%) of you were in work or looking for work. But by age 62, this had dropped to just over half (55%) – a third fewer. Retirement was the most common reason for leaving the workforce.

Both men and women were more likely to have stopped working between age 55 and 62 if they had paid off their mortgage or didn’t have children living at home.

Over a third of men who had stopped work by age 62 had reported having long-term illness at age 55. Having an employer’s pension also increased the likelihood of early retirement among men, but this was a smaller factor among women.

Increase in State Pension Age for women

The researchers found that those women who were still working in their early 60s were more likely not to have a partner than those who had left the workforce (28% vs 15%). This highlights how the State Pension Age increase for women, from age 60 to 66, may be impacting your generation and contributing to why the most financially vulnerable women are more likely to continue working.

Leaving the workforce during Covid-19

The researchers also investigated whether your generation stopped working because of the Covid-19 pandemic. They found that the number of people working dropped only slightly in the first year of the pandemic (from 55% to 51%). Importantly, the same factors affected whether someone stayed in work before and during pandemic, suggesting Covid-19 did not cause a sudden exodus from the workforce for your generation.

Why this research matters

Lead author, Dr Vanessa Moulton said:

“Our new study shows that those who had access to private pensions and housing assets were in the best position to retire at this relatively early stage of later life. Those without these resources may have to work up until State Pension Age – age 66 for this cohort – and perhaps beyond, assuming they remain in reasonably good health and do not have long-term caring responsibilities.”

The information you recently shared in the Life in Your Early 60s Survey will shed further light on your retirement plans and experiences. We’ll keep you updated on these new insights.

Read the full research paper

Economic inactivity before reaching State Pension Age: Life course evidence from the 1958 National Child Development Study by Vanessa Moulton, Alissa Goodman, Matt Brown, George B. Ploubidis was published by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies in November 2024.