As a 76 year old who has been retired officially at 65 but with no superannuation, I kept working in my business as a Consultant for about 5 more years part time.I had worked in manual jobs in my 30's and in a meat works I found an old friend of my father's who was still employed there as a mentor and a valued employee with experience to pass onto younger workers.In another Sugar Mill job I worked with a labourer who was sixty-five who taught me to learn to use a shovel in a measured and paced way to save my back when loading sand on a truck to use on the locos to spill on the tracks to stop slipping.There is no reason to lose the valuable experience of older workers in the manner in which they're employed.It is a need for employers to recognise that.As to white collar workers, if they are in senior positions they delegate much of the work and will tell you that working lives get easier the higher up in the organisation they reach.
Superannuation concerns would be the main objection for most workers I feel.There are many examples of the health of retired people deteriorating when finding the end of the routine of a job affecting them.I can cite retirement as a contributing factor in the death of half a dozen friends.If disability or medical problems exist they can be covered in the rules.

Hi Diploman
I am against raising the legal retiring age to 67 but believe that those who still wish to work should be able. Some people find it very important to keep working even if they downshift to part-time, others may want to retire at 60 to enjoy the benefits of retirement.

As with most things, one size does not always fit all.

The trouble is despite our ageing workforce there is still some discrimination against older workers.

Retirement age should be lowered not risen. How are the young (which are finding it harder and harder to get a job) suppose to get a job if we oldies keep working? We've done our bit, it's now time for them to look after us!

What's wrong with raising the retirement age to 67 ?

I worked manually in the building industry beyond that age and I believe it helped to keep me flexible and healthy. I have also made provision for my retirement without help from the government, in spite of lower than average earnings.

RawMustard “Retirement age should be lowered not risen. How are the young (which are finding it harder and harder to get a job) suppose to get a job if we oldies keep working? We've done our bit, it's now time for them to look after us!”

Ah that’s the same excuse which always gets paraded around.

It is a pseudo-truism, it is as real as “the paperless office”.

Or how “automation” was going to do us all out of jobs.

I work as a business consultant, I am pressing toward 60 but am contracted (not an employee) with a specific responsibility to change a group of companies business processes from those used in the first half of the 20th century to current standards, using ODBC and SQL and other advanced computer tools.

Along side me sits a fellow who is closer to 70 and has just had a hip replacement operation. He has a similar set of commercially specific skills. Trust me, the prices we charge are sufficient to ensure we are not “under-cutting” the younger competition.

The reason people of my “generation” are working is because, regardless of all the hype and spin, we have the skills (including breadth) which industry needs and is prepared to pay for and young fellows don’t.

As for being “looked after”…. Garbage… I make my own way in life, I do not expect anyone to shoulder my share of the social burden…

And the reason the “young” will not have jobs in the future is the luddite attitudes of one-eyed conservationists and greenies who get into political office and then make us all run around protecting the planet by developing inefficient cottage industries, promoting a subsistence lifestyle and doing nothing in terms of real trade and commerce because, “ships use fossil fuel”.

To myself, my super fund is presently insufficient to keep me for many years so I will still be working but I would do that anyway

RM:“Retirement age should be lowered not risen. How are the young (which are finding it harder and harder to get a job) suppose to get a job if we oldies keep working? We've done our bit, it's now time for them to look after us!”

Yes and females out of the work force until all the babies are in school. All pre-schools and day-care facilities shut down. No maternity leave. Nup, not joking.

My builder, who did a years worth of renovations in my house was in his seventies. Worked like a 24 year old. I don’t think I would have liked to tell him to go home and send me a 24 year old that would probably work like a 70 year old.