Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T05:27:18.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Early Retirement in a Period of High Unemployment*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Frank Laczko ,
Angela Dale ,
Sara Arber  and
G. Nigel Gilbert
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Early retirement is a policy for tackling unemployment which is popular among unions, employers and government, but there has been little recent research on its social implications for the individuals concerned. This article examines the reasons given by older men for retiring early and investigates the extent of income poverty in early retirement. Particular attention is paid to how early retirement is defined and to the differences between the early retired, the sick and the unemployed. Using data for men aged 60–64 from the General Household Survey for the years 1980–82 and from the Labour Force Survey of 1983, it is shown that ill-health is a less important reason for retirement than previous studies have suggested and that those who retire early are divided by class, with manual workers being more likely to retire early because of redundancy and more likely to be living on very low incomes than non-manual workers.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , July 1988 , pp. 313 - 333
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Altmann, R. (1982), ‘The incomes of the early retired’, Journal of Social Policy, 11:3, 355–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, J. (1986), ‘Retirement: causes and consequences. Review symposium’. Ageing and Society, 6, 219–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J.C. and Small, S. (1985), Occupational Benefits as Social Security, Policy Studies Institute, London.Google Scholar
Bytheway, B. (1985), Induced Voluntary Early Retirement, University College of Swansea, mimeo.Google Scholar
Bushell, R. (1984), ‘Great Britain, the Job Release Schemes’, paper produced for OECD panel ‘Measures to assist early retirement’, OECD, Paris, mimeo.Google Scholar
Daniel, W.W. and Stilgoe, E. (1978), The Impact of Employment Protection Laws, Policy Studies Institute, London.Google Scholar
Department of Employment (1984), Employment Gazette, 02, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Ermisch, J. (1982),‘Resources of the elderly—impact of present commitments and established trends’ in Fogarty, M. (ed.), Retirement Policy: the Next Fifty Years, Heinemann, London.Google Scholar
Hemming, R. (1984), Poverty and Incentives, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
House of Commons Social Services Committee (1982), Third Report from the. Social Services Committee. 1981–82, Age of Retirement. House of Commons Paper 26–1, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
IMS (1983), Early Retirement, Institute of Manpower Studies commentary No. 24, Brighton.Google Scholar
ISSA (1986), Social Security, Unemployment and Premature Retirement, International Social Security Association, Geneva.Google Scholar
Kuhlewind, G. (1985), ‘How efficient and effective is early retirement as a policy for redistributing work?’, International Symposium on distributing the rewards of economic activity: alternative transfer and employment policies toward economically active and non-active groups, Augsburg, October, mimeo.Google Scholar
Laczko, F. (1986), ‘Early retirement: an overview of policies in OECD countries’, paper prepared for OECD Working Party on Social Policy. Third Meeting 30 June–2 July 1986, Paris.Google Scholar
Laczko, F. (1987), ‘Older workers, unemployment, and the discouraged worker effect’ in Gregorio, S. Di (ed.), Social Gerontology: New Directions, Croom Helm, London.Google Scholar
Laczko, F. (1988), ‘Between work and retirement: becoming old in the 1980s’, in Bytheway, B. (ed.), Becoming and Being Old, Sage, London, (forthcoming)Google Scholar
Laczko, F. and Walker, A. (1985), ‘Excluding older workers from the labour market: early retirement policies in Britain, France and Sweden’ in Jones, C. and Brenton, M. (eds), The Yearbook of Social Policy in Britain 1984–85, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
McGoldrick, A. and Cooper, C. (1980), ‘Voluntary early retirement: taking the decision’, Employment Gazette, 08, 859–864.Google Scholar
OECD (1984), Labour Force Statistics 1963–1983. OECD, Paris.Google Scholar
OPCS (1984), The General Household Survey 1982. HMSO, London.Google Scholar
OPCS (1985), The General Household Survey 1983, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
OPCS (1986), The Labour Force Survey 1983 and 1984. HMSO. London.Google Scholar
Parker, S. (1980), Older Workers and Retirement, OPCS, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Piachaud, D. (1986), ‘Disability, retirement and unemployment of older men’, Journal of Social Policy, 15:2, 145–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuller, T. (1986), ‘Second adolescence? The transition from paid employment’, paper presented at British Sociological Association Conference, University of Loughborough, 03.Google Scholar
Shanas, E. et al. (1968), Old People in Three Industrial Societies, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Sinfield, A. (1984), ‘The wider impact of unemployment’ in High Unemployment: A Challenge for Income Support Policies, OECD, Paris.Google Scholar
Townsend, P. (1979), Poverty in the United Kingdom, Penguin, Harmondsworth.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, A. (1985), ‘Early retirement: release or refuge from the labour market?’, Quarterly Journal of Social Affairs, 1:3, 211–229.Google Scholar
Walker, A. and Laczko, F. (1982), ‘Early retirement and flexible retirement’, House of Commons Social Services Committee, Third Report, Age of Retirement. House of Commons Paper 26–II, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
White, M. (1980), Shorter Working Time, Policy Studies Institute, London.Google Scholar
Wood, S. (1980), ‘Managerial reactions to job redundancy through early retirement’, Sociological Review, 28:4, 783–807.CrossRefGoogle Scholar