How health affects retirement decisions: three pathways taken by middle-older aged New Zealanders

Abstract

Concerns about the economic impact of an ageing population have triggered many developed countries to advance policies that attempt to extend working lives and discourage early retirement. There is considerable evidence of a relationship between poor health and early retirement, but some researchers have suggested that there is a ‘justification bias’ in claims that ill-health is the cause of retirement. This paper reports a longitudinal qualitative study that interviewed 60 New Zealanders aged between 55 and 70 years on two occasions, and analysed their explanations of health-related retirement decisions. Although the participants' explanations included poor health as an important reason for retirement, two additional health-related retirement pathways were identified: the ‘maximisation of life’, being decisions to retire whilst healthy to fulfil other life goals; and ‘health protection’, being decisions motivated by health protection and promotion. These health pathways interacted with other factors such as financial security. An elucidation of these motivations pays particular attention to the social and discursive context of explanations of retirement, and considers the three identified health-retirement pathways in relation to the sickness justification bias and current government policies to extend working lives.

The role of ability, motivation, and opportunity to work in the transition from work to early retirement – testing and optimizing the Early Retirement Model

“…Improving the Early Retirement Model showed that high social support of colleagues and supervisor and a positive attitude of the partner with respect to early retirement also influenced early retirement directly, and that having a partner was only directly related to early retirement. The finding that work ability and the opportunity to work mediate the relation between health, job characteristics, skills and knowledge, and social factors is in line with previous qualitative research (14,22,23). Unexpectedly, work engagement did not mediate the relation between these determinants and early retirement, although previ- de Wind et al ous qualitative research suggested this (14).…”

“…Qualitative research suggested that the ability, motivation, and opportunity to work mediate the relationship between determinants in the domains health, job characteristics, skills and knowledge, and social and financial factors, on the one hand, and early retirement on the other hand (14,22,23). For example, employees experiencing physically demanding work or high work pressure retired early because they felt their work demands reduced their ability to continue working (14).…”

“…For example, employees experiencing physically demanding work or high work pressure retired early because they felt their work demands reduced their ability to continue working (14). Also, employees who experienced that their health problems impaired their ability to function at work, retired early (22,23). Conflicts at work and continuous changes in the way work needed to be done resulted in a decreased motivation to continue working, and this in turn resulted in early retirement (14).…”

Geographies of the impact of retirement on health in the United Kingdom

“…A common policy response to the issue of population ageing in Western countries is to postpone retirement to older ages (Hamblin 2010;Pond et al 2010). For example, in the UK, under the Pensions Act 2011, the state pension age for women will increase from 60 to 65 by 2018.…”

Returning to Work after Retirement: Who, What and Why?

“…People who have health problems are more likely to withdraw from the labour market and are expected to be less inclined -and able -to re-enter the labour market after early retirement, even if the job is more flexible and less taxing than the work they used to do (Pond et al 2010). Table).…”