Time to get on our bikes and mopeds to earn extra money to live on?

I think the problem is that no one can get their state pension at 50. The earliest now is age 66. Anyone under that age would be relying on firms pensions.

My state pension is pretty ok, with my contributions and DHs, but I'm well over age 50.

Those under living wage can claim Pension credit.

It's not perfect, and I'm pretty lucky with private pensions and savings, but we all have to make decisions about what we need to get through.

Yes, I know that.

What I am saying is that a full pension should be enough to live on. If it isn't, the government should be doing something about it. An increase in NI, or some other way to pay when people are young, so that nobody feels that they have to continue to work in older age if they don't want to.

Doodledog

Oh yes. Anyone who wants to do anything should be able to do it (if they are physically able). I am talking about the implied pressure on people to be looking for work in retirement. If they want to, fine, but IMO a full pension should mean that it's not necessary.

Agreed.

Doodledog, not everyone is quite content with the same full pension. For example, people have different outgoings, different numbers of AC and GC - quite different costs. Numbers matter, to some.

Oh yes. Anyone who wants to do anything should be able to do it (if they are physically able). I am talking about the implied pressure on people to be looking for work in retirement. If they want to, fine, but IMO a full pension should mean that it's not necessary.

Doodledog

'Over 50' covers a lot of ground though. At 50, people have 17 years to go before SRA, so it's not unreasonable to think they will want to work, but someone of 85 is in a different situation.

True. However, if a person finds that they want to work, say at 85, I'd imagine that person can find things to happily work at. My husband, around 80, happily works at his business, not the heavy lifting/ equipment bits any longer - but he surely still uses his alert business brain and tinkering hands.

Enjoy the extra cash because delivering pizzas is so well paid...not!
I wish they wouldn't come out with these crackpot statements.

How do we fit it in with looking after our grandchildren?

I have been retired for 10 years and have found invigilating at a local school works very well for me. It gives me extra cash which goes towards holidays, I can fit it round my other activities as I am only required during GCSE times, plus mocks periods - approximately 12 weeks a year in total. And you can choose your own sessions (within reason).

'Over 50' covers a lot of ground though. At 50, people have 17 years to go before SRA, so it's not unreasonable to think they will want to work, but someone of 85 is in a different situation.

Skydancer I can't see myself doing this as I'm much older than 50. But I'd love to find a way to earn some extra cash but I can't think how. Has anyone any ideas?

In our area there is always a need for house cleaners, gardeners, people to do small in-home tasks (repairs, painting, bits of decorating), sewists, people who iron (I hate to iron mum did as well - we generally pay if we can't just shake out of tumble dryer). Baker: breads, biscuits, cakes, dinner casseroles.

It's the usual Tory, rather unsubtle innuendo that older or disabled or chronically ill people are skivers and should be flogged back to work.

Skydancer

I can't see myself doing this as I'm much older than 50. But I'd love to find a way to earn some extra cash but I can't think how. Has anyone any ideas?

I worked with special needs students in a secondary school so did exam invigilation including scribe and reader roles. Since retirement I’ve continued this work though now usually just with the main body of students but occasionally using the other skills. You need an enhanced police check and have to do training every year as the rules keep changing but it’s suitable for us oldies. Some schools struggle to get enough people. The downside is it is ‘seasonal’ and not very highly paid, though for casual work it’s ok. I don’t need the money to survive but the extra helps me pay off my mortgage a bit quicker and, for me personally, keeps me in touch with former colleagues. Contact a local school direct and ask if they have vacancies.

It always makes me laugh when I see in the press about the "over 50's" that have retired - I'm sure that the vast majority of "normal" people are totally unable to afford to stop working in their 50's. I'm 56 and am nowhere near retiring - both because I don't want to and because I couldn't possibly afford to!

I certainly won't be working until my State Pension Age (67) as I have been saving into a personal pension for many years but I will not be able to retire until, say, 64. My boss is 65 and is still fairly sprightly and his mind is as sharp as ever so I am looking to him for my example.

In my area there should be a vacancy for someone to teach delivery drivers how to read an OS map. I live in an area where 7 houses with the same post code are spread over a square mile. The first house alphabetically gets deliveries for some of the other houses. The excuse is that the sat nav sent them there.
If you do take a job as a delivery driver, please learn to read an OS map

A number of our food bank customers are in zero hour contract jobs.

good old spin from the smiling assassin, hunt, i wish he would get on his bike? Let's strike fear into the masses over 50 who are often disadvantaged by all sorts of things , why couldn't he say work in care homes, offices etc young people find deliveroo jobs physically draining, this sort of stuff makes my blood boil.....

Ill, not I’ll!!!!!!

No way! I’m not going to be morally blackmailed into making myself (more) I’ll by working in a poorly-paid job so the government can abolish pensions and distribute the pension pot to its friends!

Does Mel Stride know any older people who are working in such jobs? I bet anyone he knows who’s working into their seventies is going to a few meetings a year as a Trustee or a Board member!

What a clever idea, getting 'retired' people back into meaningful poorly paid occupations! I'd love a change. I currently do quite complex medical procedures like making up prescribed IV medication from scratch and giving it through a pump, and monitoring the recipient etc. I do this three times a day for quite a lot of the time, as well as managing overnight feeds into a peg in the person's abdomen. For a year or so I gave TPN which is basically managing all nutrition through venous access and it was a time consuming and complicated sterile process involving a lot of training. I used to be paid to do it, almost £70 a week! Wasn't I lucky to be so well rewarded for giving up a well paid london job in order to do all this - at least until I got my state pension which is when the government's generous carer allowance stops (to be fair, I think it's gone up to almost £77 a week these days). Of course, I still do all these things but now free of charge. If someone else would like to take over, someone who can live-in and provide 24 hour on-call services and a fairly high level of complex care? Let me know please, I'd love to go back to what I did as a 16 year old, picking beans and potatoes on a farm - but they'd have to make 'reasonable adjustments' for the fact that I have arthritis and can't bend over or carry anything weighing more than a kettle and I'm probably not safe driving (unable to see Tory MPs at night) or using large mechanical equipment (at least not in the vicinity of the above). I do have an electric bike though so I have a range of about 15 miles a day and I can charge it using my winter fuel allowance.

If there is a local demand in an area for cleaners, gardeners, decoraters and people to do small handyperson jobs (the jobs that trades wont bother with) then some of these are going to be hoovered up by people on a self employed/cash in hand basis so are not going to appear in the statistics. I started another thread on older people returning to work where some highly qualified posters admitted to having tried it but then left having been hammered by tax. As matters stand there is little incentive for people to return to work if they are already drawing a private pension of some kind. Better to do it as a side hustle.

Time for the Tories to get on their bikes.

Mahatma Gandhi famously said that you can judge a nation’s greatness by the way it treats its weakest members. “A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but it's lowest ones,” said Nelson Mandela. A society is judged by the way it treats its weak members. When a society actively perpetuates the disadvantaged status of a social group through discrimination, this reflects negatively on that society.

This Government fails this everytime they are in power.

It might affect any means tested top-ups such as Pension Credit, any rent rests, or council tax help.

AshleysGran

If you've already retired, wouldn't doing part-time work affect your pension?

It wouldn’t affect state pension, but it would increase the amount of tax you pay - possibly offset by not having to pay NI contributions on reaching state pension age.

If you've already retired, wouldn't doing part-time work affect your pension?