Have we stopped ageing?

Most likely just 'spin' to justify raising the retirement age for women like me to 66 - I have worked all my life as an NHS wage-slave and was looking forward to putting my feet up at 60! No chance - I'm still working full-time! That said, it's an incentive to keep myself fit so that I can still do all the things on my 'bucket list' - except I'll be doing them later than planned!

We may be healthier but I find at 80 that I am often the oldest because I don't always do things that my generation does.
If I go to classical concerts I am with people like me, nicely dressed but all with grey hair and men wearing a tie.

In the French class they can hardly believe that at 80 I am as good at French as they are. They can hardly believe a person should want to learn French at this advanced age.

I remember my grandparents being old and tired but if I had done all the washing by hand in a house with coal stored in the kitchen and the dust that that made, I know why they were tired.
So our generation is always going to appear younger and fitter than our parents and we had a good healthy diet but this generation will not make old bones like we have done.
This 70 is the new 60 will soon stop as the poorly nourished obese children of today get older.

Someone I know has worked as a moulder, one of the heaviest jobs in a foundry. He had to give up on health grounds at age 62. There 's surely no way HMG can expect people in these physically demanding jobs to continue till they're nearly 70. As people have remarked on this thread, it's hard enough to keep going through your 60s at optimum efficiency in the professions or administrative work.

I understand that in some other countries, pension arrangements are such that you can 'wind down' as you approach retirement age, gradually going part time till you stop work altogether.

If other countries can make it work, why can't we

I think basically nearly everyone over 65 is in agreement that it is problematical to visualise working until one is 70. (I know I am thankful that I don't have to). The problem is how do we convince the politicians that putting up retirement age is a bad idea?

Nearly all European countries either have raised retirement age, or are doing so gradually. They all have a greater or lesser number of young people out of work, or who have never been able to get a job and so have no experience to write in their applications.

BUT the politicians do not seem able to see that if the 20-30 year olds cannot get work, then it doesn't make sense to keep the 60-70 year olds at work.

Surely the birth rate will fall even more drastically, if young people cannot get jobs - the more sensible of them will hesitate to bring children they cannot support into the world.

I think all this "70 is the new 60" is just nonsense as I think every poster here has said.

I think too there is an element of justifying the lack of funding investment and cuts in our local authority funding and stagnating economy may be one of the excuses politicians make for supporting these daft ideas.

Not read all the posts, but I'm sure someone will have said - would you like a 65 year old fireman/firewoman dashing into a blazing building - obviously with his glasses on, and having had his knee or hip replacement done to keep him/her at work.

You're right, Anya, (oh, and I liked Y6 too, especially the boys at that age!): part time work should be made more widely available. There also needs to be a radical rearrangement of working practices so that people who need the money are able to do jobs that are comfortably and safely within their capabilities as they age. Waiting until they give up because their bodies and minds just can't cope, and then refusing them any benefits on the grounds that they're"fit for work" is simply cruel, and inflicts hardship on people who don't deserve it.

Retail is indeed an option; a relative of mine who works as a manager for a large supermarket chain says they'd rather employ over-65s than under-25s on the tills, as they are more likely to turn up on time and not have mysterious Monday-morning illnesses, and they're often more comfortable making small-talk with the customers.

In teaching, though, as in other child-related work, even if you have the physical and emotional stamina, there's a whole world they have to navigate that older people know little about. Social media, messaging, Snapchat, Whatsapp, Instagram .... then there's "sexting", and online pornography available in forms we never dreamt about. Adult who are closer in age are more likely to be able to keep up with this and know how to educate and prepare young people for the adult life ahead, which will be worlds away from ours when we grew up in the 1950s/60s/70s. Some jobs are best left to the younger generation.

So pleased to have read your post Grannyticktock. Whilst I agree that many people 60+ look at lot younger than they did, bodies are still slowing down and getting illnesses and deteriorating just as they did in the past.

I feel for people who have had their working life extended. Many women have had retirement deferred twice now. I've had the dreaded arthritis since early 50s, but many suffer with it in their hands and shoulders by the time they reach 60. Which can make even an office job very painful. I wanted a change from office work several years ago and after a couple hours of picking up the lightest of things I was left barely able to walk from standing for 3 hours and couldn't pick up the kettle or a book for several weeks after. You cannot even see that I suffer with arthritis!
However I think of those people who build and lift heavy things, the sort of jobs that most men do for a living. How can they keep working when often the hands are too painful to lift things as they did and they have bad backs etc. My father had an engineering business and had to retire a couple of years early simple because lifting heavy castings etc made his hand too painful and swollen. It's all right these politicians keep extending retirement, they have Directorships and fingers in many pies that they can eventually just work the hours that suit and no heavy lifting or sitting at a desk for hours at a time.

It's about time we were able to speak up for the man in the street!

Should mention though that I am treated very well by son and daughter and families. Son does lots of jobs for me around the house and anything to do with my car. Daughter invites me for lovely Sunday lunch every couple of weeks. Feel very blessed.

I agree that even though we may look younger and have much better health care than years ago, we still have age related problems. I am 69 and for my age look ok but in the past 6 years I've had surgery for cancer and two hip replacements. I have had to fight my way back to health and I am reasonably active and look after my GC two days in the holidays and pick one up from school once a week and take him to some after-school activities. I'm a taxi for my teenage GD's and friends,I love being involved in their lives and and they know they can phone me anytime 24/7 if they are ever "stuck" anywhere. I am pleased to be healthy enough to be a support to my family but working would be out of the question.

Watching old cine films of our parents made us realise how much older in looks they were and we are now decades older than they were when the films were made. OH says he started slowing down at 68 due to various medical problems me due to fall and broken bones, really slowed me up, however, we are out and about a lot more than my parents at the same age.

I'm glad it's not just me! I am 68 in November but keep very (very) busy and active every day. Sometimes though I do feel tired and like another G'netter thought about going to my GP as some days I do feel tired out. I have a husband who has had a heart attack to keep an eye on and a lively grandson who I care for a lot plus sleepovers. The thing I find is that adult children and their families think you can go on forever doing big family meals, "let's all meet up at your house mum" etc when in fact I find it hard work. I do notice that after catering/organising en famille days the following day I feel "wiped out". No one ever thinks perhaps we might like to be asked over for a coffee/drink (never get meal invites). When I think of how my mother/aunts were at my age - they had settled into "little old lady/grandma" roles....not me! We just need to"cut ourselves some slack" and if we need to put our feet up with a cup of tea/gin and tonic in the afternoon I say we deserve it! Make time for yourself.

Kim spot on! You're an inspiration.

GrannyTickTock I could NEVER have taught Reception for all the money in the world. They are an alien breed. But I could still happily teach Y6 - my preferred year. I don't claim to have the eyesight of a 30 year old - whatever that is. But I can still see well enough without glasses as many who are still working full time.

I do take your point about expectations of the ageing work force, and there are certainly those who need to be pensioned off before their time. But pensions were never intended to see as through decades of leisurely living post retirement - especially the state pension.

We are living longer and the problem is having a financial impact on the economy and those who are having to stump up our pensions.

Somewhere in the middle is possibly the answer, as quite a few seem to be taking on part time work to supplement their income and to keep from vegetating keep interested and active. Indeed some of the most pleasant and helpful people encountered in retail are of pensionable age.

I'm inclined to agree that its propaganda in order to make working until I'm 67 more bearable.

In our family, we all have early onset arthritis along with a wealth of health problems due to a genetic condition. We might look younger than most at our age (there have to be plus sides) but by 60 we tend to be much more decrepit. Fortunately, I don't have to work until 67 because we have just enough income but the fact is, I am in my late 50's and I just wouldn't be able to work. Nor could my mother, who has literally been crippled with arthritis since her early 60's or my younger sisters who have been in wheelchairs for the last 5 years. This older workers policy just doesn't fit all.

I think I am very, very lucky. I am in my very early 80's and feel better than I felt 10years ago. I walk for at least half an hour each day (or the dog gets cross!) and count myself incredibly fortunate as I broke my hip 7 years ago -tripped over my own feet! Shall walk as often and as long as possible, its better than all those expensive torture chambers which call themselves Gyms

I think it's propaganda from our government convincing up we are all feeling great to keep up working until we die.

Deborahuns, I think teaching salaries are now paid at 65 - and that's if you started paying contributions after April 2007, otherwise, if before, then maybe a lump sum and payouts from 60 and there is the option of takig a lesser amount from 55 so you may have options to work part-time.

I am a teacher too and within this and other professions e.g. prison service, fire service, I think it is unrealistic to expect all these people to have the energy needed to meet the rigorous demands of the job at a later age.

DH worked in prison service and said it is a 'young man's game' - having to engage with and restrain much younger people on a regular basis. And then there is the 'beep' test (think that is what it is called) that will need to be passed to ensure sustained employment later in life for some.

I think 'ageing' is going to become a critical political issue in the light of delayed pension age as the years unfold. And I do think that younger car-bound , fast-food-fed generations who may have to navigate a privatised health system may have declining health earlier.

Perhaps in terms of improving generational health things have peaked now!

I could not have put this better, Grannyticktock; in fact I wish I could have put it as well. As a Baby Boomer I am more grateful than I can say for the NHS, peace, a free Grammar school education, and more blessings than I can count ; we Gransnetters born in this country in the times that we were certainly won the lottery of life. We are fitter and healthier than our parents and grandparents, but as I approach seventy I am having to accept that I can't run, climb endless stairs, or work tirelessly all day, and a couple of days with the darling grand children leaves me feeling as if I have been run over by a garden roller, much as I love them and want to have their happy company. I cannot pretend that I can do the things I did at fifty, or even sixty; I'm just grateful for what I can do!

I worked full time with Prisoners until I was 68. I only retired then as the in service pension rules changed and I would have lost out big time. I am now 71. My sister on the other hand has had poorly health for years and could never have worked full time even in her younger years. Everyone if different. These so called experts have a lot to answer for..... and where are all these jobs anyway?

I think it's amazing when people get so much older and are still able to do so many things. I'm 62 and really don't have the energy that I had even 10yrs ago. On the other hand my mother is 94, lives on her own, does all her own gardening, even climbing up ladders! She never seems to sit still and only gets about 4hrs sleep a night as she says she never feels tired.

I agree absolutely that we are, on the whole, fitter than previous generations. In my case, my parents, who took up hill walking late in life, were very fit, and my Mum was scuttling around on a bike all her life, although she died at 63 from a cancer that might well not have killed her today. Their mothers - my grannies - seemed very old and staid to me. Further back still, I have a photos of two of my great grandmothers; one looks like an elderly Queen Victoria, while the other is posed seated in the garden in long, black clothes, looking like an elderly matriarch, but in fact they were both only in their 50s when the photos were taken. (Mind you, they had each borne about a dozen children! That must take its toll.)

As some people are remembering, my OP was about the ludicrous claim that at 70 we are as fit as we ourselves were at 60, which is quite another matter.

I have just been out for a 45-minute walk; now I'm off to do some gardening, and later I am going for a swim. Just don't ask me to teach a class of tots or teenagers, or drive an ambulance!

I'm still teaching full time and coming up to my sixtieth birthday. Kids today are much tougher and much as I love the job I dread having to go on till 67 which is the new retirement age for people born in 1957. Also I think it's wrong for the pupils. Mine are teenagers and however hard I try to keep up it's practically impossible now, I can't think what it will be like in a couple of years. They need younger people to burnt out tired ones like me!!

Whilst I think, generally speaking, views about ageing are changing and there has probably been an improvement in health-terms for those born into the NHS support-system, I don't doubt that some elements of ageing, including falling energy levels post 60, are likely to continue to cause difficulties in the 60+ generation.

I feel DH and I will be fortunate at 60 to have some options about part time before we qualify for state pension at 67 because of work related pensions, but many people of my generation will be wondering, in their mid 50s, how they can make it to 66 / 67 in full-time employment - especially when they work in physically demanding jobs.

It is simply not realistic to think that everyone will be able to sustain full-time work through their late 60s - into their 70s in future generations and I think that many will face economic hardship because of health matters in years to come.

I suspect that the 'actuarial expert' that the OP referred to is one of the government mouthpieces and part of a 'drip , drip, drip' method of trying to convince the nation that somehow we are all able to do more for longer...

Or is that just me being cynical?

I am 66. I work full time, I do between 8 thousand and 11 thousand steps a day at work and lift heavy boxes. I am up and down a flight of steps several times a day. Oh and I have just bought a narrow boat and live on it. I will be taking her out single handed. Oh and I have a date next week with a fellow boater... Life is good and I have no intention of slowing down

Modern life makes us 'fitter' in a sense that we have machines to wash and dry the laundry, hoovers are lightweight, cars have power steering and automatic gear changes, riser chairs and beds, showers, mobility scooters, all good for keeping us going at home...but physically I find I have very low stamina now and just get exhausted to the point where I am housebound.

I am so much better in my home environment, it is when I venture out that I find myself really challenged. Other people's furniture seems very low, few public toilets, high kerbs, crossing where the lights change quickly, hardly any benches for a sit down when out. The environment disables people but we don't seem to be addressing the issues at all.