A large proportion of the employees intending to retire in 2008 have a final salary pension scheme and plan to leave their careers well under the retirement age, research has found.
A survey conducted by insurer Prudential found that 52% of people who are retiring next year have a final salary pension scheme, while 22% are members of defined contribution schemes.
The Prudential Class of 2008 Retirement Report questioned more than 4,000 people, with 464 people out of that sample size retiring in 2008.
It also found that majority of those planning to retire next year, will do so early, with men aged an average of just 60 and women aged around 58, compared with a state pension age of 65 for men and 60 for women.
More than 20% of respondents who said they were retiring next year said they had reached the statutory retirement age, while 18% reported poor health as the main reason.
One in four respondents were sailing off into the proverbial sunset because they could afford to, while some had already worked on beyond the state pension age – 11% of men who plan to retire in 2008 aged over 65, while 33% of women are more than 60.
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Ali Crossley, retirement insurance director at Prudential, said: “People retiring next year are in general entitled to think ‘What pensions crisis?’. On average they are giving up work early and can look forward to final salary schemes having worked hard throughout their lives.
“Those of us coming after the class of 2008 will perhaps not be so lucky unless we take action to plan for retirement,” she added.
