Elderly face work beyond retirement age over pensions crisis

OLDER people may have to work past 65 in the future due to the pensions time bomb, a conference was told yesterday.

There are 750,000 Irish people over 55 and the number of young workers who will fund their future pensions is due to drop dramatically, according to the organisers of the conference on anti-discrimination and older people.

“We’re going to have a huge problem. People are healthier now and living much longer, so we have to look at how to fund their pensions.

"We’re going to have to try to keep older people in employment longer,” said the director of the European Older People’s Platform (AGE) Ann-Sophie Parent.

The EU has issued an employment directive which forbids job discrimination on age grounds. It has already been implemented here and is intended to give opportunities to older people who want to work.

“A lot of people decide to retire because they can’t cope with the job anymore. The EU has decided to make work pay by allowing people to retire gradually. They can mix their income with pension payments and there could be tax incentives,” said Ms Parent.

Fine Gael TD John Bruton, who also spoke at the conference, said the need to work longer in the future was an absolute certainty. He is involved in drawing up the draft EU constitution, which will include anti-discrimination rights for older people.

“We have to ensure that older people get equal pay for equal work. Not if they’re doing less hours obviously, but there is something of a problem there at the moment,” he said.

Just 8% of Irish people over 65 are still in the workforce. If this is to increase, the stereotypes about grumpy old men and nice old ladies need to be challenged, according to the Age and Opportunity organisation.

“It’s harder to see discrimination against older people because the attitude is everywhere, from birthday cards to when we say, ‘I’m getting old’,” spokeswoman Ann Leahy said.

But she acknowledged that some older people find their jobs fulfilling and want to continue, while others look forward to early retirement.

“We are very much in favour of people having the choice. I would hate to see a situation where people were forced to work if they didn’t want to,” Ms Leahy said.

Another problem is the high premiums for travel and motor insurance.

“There is a lot of actuarial discrimination. Not everyone has the money to travel but if you have, the insurance shouldn’t be so expensive,” said Michael O’Halloran, the president of the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament.