These days in the UK, regardless of the political and funding motivation to increase the pension age, anyone over the age of 50 is potential retirement material. Well, it’s time for a ‘60ish’ OAP to add their rambling digressions to this discussion. This thread may be nearing its conclusion, so allow an OAP to help kill it off in a manner befitting its subject. Some thoughts raised by previous posts:
In the UK, you are allowed to work beyond the ages of 60 and 65. It’s finding, or being allowed to continue in a suitable position that’s the near impossible challenge. After a period, if the retirement income is substantive, you really do wonder why anyone would bother. Honest. As always, it depends on the individuals circumstances.
It really is a shame that the UK elderly will not have a chance to experience the hospital care available in the US, especially under a ‘Cadillac’ heath care plan. Until the current economic crisis, the NHS was making considerable improvements to local hospitals. Let’s hope it continues.
Conversely, and as has been pointed out in other posts, it really is a shame that the US elderly do not have the care and assistance available in the UK that allows the elderly to stay in their homes for a much longer period. These are people who can still lead a useful life, but need some basic assistance. My opinion is based on the worry about a close elderly relative in the States, and the observation of close elderly relatives in the UK. Eventually, the cost of running a home can catch up with all, whether it’s the US or UK. In this location, if the elderly are physically unable to visit the doctor’s surgery, the doctor will visit them in their home. This is aside from the free prescriptions and free operations readily available on the NHS to the point of death. As has been noted, there are retirement communities, some at a price, and some with funding assisted from the local council.
From my own personal experience, private dental care in the UK is much less expensive than in the US. Also, my UK dentist will do all possible to avoid extractions. This may somewhat explain the US stereotypical response to the UK smile.
The UK State pension allowance is a disgrace, even with the £125 Winter Fuel Allowance and the £10 Christmas Bonus. You do receive an additional personal allowance at age 65, but it gradually disappears if your income is over £22,900. By £28,930, it’s all gone. You still pay the 20%, 40%, or 50% tax rate on your savings if your retirement income level is high enough.
BostonDiner has kindly directed us to an article on an aging report found in the Telegraph. I must be careful in my comments on this report since the author is based at the University of Michigan. To question its accuracy would run the risk of invalidating my Masters Degree from the U of M. If the air in Ann Arbor is still saturated with the smell of burning hemp, as in my day, it may explain some of the findings. Some comments on the article’s contents:
“The gap was so wide that a 75-year-old American had a similar brain to a 65-year-old Englishman, the tests proved.”
The use of the words “similar brain” may cause considerable annoyance to a number of the UK public, especially Jeremy Clarkson readers, regardless of age.
“US adults reported significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms than English adults,…”
This may be true, but UK adults completely understand the lyrics to Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” album.
"Other studies conducted in the mid-1990s have found that fewer than 15 per cent of depressed adults in English samples received medication to treat their depression, compared to nearly 75 per cent of depressed US adults,"
Hmmmm! So the basis of the report has something to do with a lot of people ‘hyperactively drugged up to the eyeballs’?
“More than 50 per cent of US seniors reported no alcohol use, compared to only 15.5 per cent of English seniors.”
I visit my (‘60ish’) relatives in the States at least once a year. Possibly 50% do abstain from alcohol. Due to their beliefs, some refuse to patronise a restaurant that serves alcohol altogether. But my (‘60ish’) UK friends and relatives also have strong beliefs. 100% of them believe that a weekly three hour (minimum) lunch, with ample libations, at a good country pub buggers a fast food restaurant any day.
“US pensioners mentally '10 years younger' than those in England”
As one might expect, I do take exception to the title of the article. In my personal opinion, based on the aforementioned US relatives and the viewing of Fox News and other cable news, I find this to be a gross understatement and totally inaccurate. For my (‘60ish’) US relatives and TV presenters, the mentality difference is at least 50 years younger. Minimum.
Again, one UK OAP’s point of view. Viewpoints may vary according to circumstances.
