Employment experiences of the over-55s

Recent research in to the finances of the UK’s over-55s, has revealed that two in five of them have seen significant, and often unwanted and unplanned, changes to their careers in the ten years between their 55th and 65th birthdays.

Indeed, one in seven report being made redundant, 11% were forced to stop work due to illness and 11% were forced into early retirement.

Aviva’s latest Real Retirement Report also found that the vast majority (74%) of over-55s said it is harder to find work after their 55th birthday, and 35% said that they believed that employers valued youth and speed over experience. 

Almost half of those who were made redundant felt this happened as their company was making cuts and they were simply included in those at risk, and 31% chose to take redundancy as they were offered a good package. However, 8% said they believed their company chose to replace them with someone that they could pay less. Possibly as a result, over-55s believe smaller employers (24%) are better than larger employers (9%) to work for when they are older.