Brits are likely to find themselves working well past the current retirement age, experts said (Image: Getty)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n A fall in final salary pensions, stretched state spending and longer life expectancy is predicted to completely transform retirement as we know it.<\/p>\n The \u201cretirement cliff edge\u201d is already a thing of the past, experts say, meaning that millions of Brits will live very different lives to their forebears when they reach pension age. The concept of retirement \u201cwhile we are still capable of productive work\u201d is an outdated idea that could be replaced by the “19th-century norm” of many needing to continue working well beyond age 65.<\/p>\n Employers have been called on to combat \u201cageism\u201d in hiring practices and make adjustments for older workers to continue well past retirement age. Len Shackleton, Editorial and Research Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs, told Express.co.uk: \u201c’Retirement’ in the sense we think about it – a withdrawal from the workforce while we are still capable of productive work – is very much a twentieth-century invention.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n READ MORE <\/strong> ‘I’m a savings expert – top tips to amass up to \u00a32.3million for your children’ <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n This had been \u201cfacilitated by state pensions and final-salary private pensions which gave older people security for what was for most a fairly limited period of economic inactivity before they succumbed to mortality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cFinal salary pensions are disappearing, state spending is overstretched, people are living longer and there are fewer young workers to support them,\u201d Mr Shackleton added. \u201cIf these trends continue, retirement is likely to be delayed more or less indefinitely, certainly for those who have not been employed in physically demanding jobs, and may revert to the 19th-century norm, when retirement was only for the infirm and those incapable any longer of sustained physical effort in factories and mines.\u201d<\/p>\n The change in retirement trends is already well underway, said Dr Emily Andrews, Deputy Director for Work at the Centre for Ageing Better.<\/p>\n She told Express.co.uk that the way we leave work is \u201cchanging\u201d, rather than \u201cdisappearing\u201d – with the \u201c\u2018retirement cliff edge\u2019 very much a thing of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n Stats show that people are already approaching pension age in entirely different circumstances to 20 years ago. Dr Andrews said: \u201cThere used to be a big spike in people retiring when they reached state pension age, but this has flattened considerably over the last decade. The number of people who keep working after 65 has risen by nearly a million since the millennium.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cOne in nine people now keep working beyond their 65th birthday, compared to one in 20 in 2000.\u201d<\/p>\n However, whether or not this applies to you will depend on existing wealth and the area of industry you are in.<\/p>\n Dr Andrews said: \u201cThe way people are able to navigate this transition into retirement is heavily dependent on how wealthy and healthy they are in middle age. Higher earners who are considering stopping work before retirement age are more likely to talk about wanting a better work\/life balance.<\/p>\n \u201cLower earners on the other hand are more likely to refer to the challenges of their physical or mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n She added that \u201chigh-quality, well-paid, flexible work like consultancy\u201d are the kinds of job that \u201cfuturists have identified as options for older workers in the future. This kind of work won\u2019t be an option for every older worker.\u201d<\/p>\n However without an overall change in the way work is structured, this delayed or flexible retirement could cause problems for the economy and workers alike.<\/p>\n Andrew Scott, Professor of Economics at London Business School and author of The 100-Year Life, told Express.co.uk: \u201cThe problem is if governments keep raising the state pension age but don\u2019t make it easier for older workers to keep working. Not all jobs can be done as you get older.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The change in retirement could widen the poverty gap for workers in less flexible industries (Image: Getty)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/23\/590x\/secondary\/pensions-retirement-age-5184559.jpg?r=1706360685991\" "\\"An")
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