PAUL LICENSE: Duped into false sense of security
IT'S Glastonbury this weekend. And, before you ask: no. I won't be going.
You see, I feel that I am at the wrong end of my 50s. In fact, my 60s are looming ominously close.
At Glastonbury, I'd be a fish out of water. I'd stick out like a sore thumb. I'd feel my years.
The sad thing is that I'd enjoy the music.
Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen are two of my musical heroes and they're both playing at the festival.
And what makes matters worse is that Springsteen will be 60 in September. And Young is about to answer the Beatles's question whether we'll still need him when he's 64 (his pre-pension birthday's on November 24).
They are both tremendous examples of the old adage: growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
However, for we mere mortals (and they truly are Rock Gods in my personal pantheon) growing old is a growing problem.
Fortunately my generation approaches retirement at least without the burden of infirmity.
We are younger in body, as well as younger at heart, than our parents.
And we can look forward to retirement with a spring in our step.
Even if that doesn't mean, in my case, a visit to a music festival, I still live in hope that I will be sufficiently sound in mind and limb to enjoy a stiff climb in the Peak District on pension day.
For that reason I take my cap off to Tory MP William Hague's dad.
Pushing 81, he is still up for a challenge and recently climbed England's highest peak, Scafell Pike in the Lakes, to raise money for charity.
I have done that climb in the past and it's no push-over.
You are walking uphill for around six miles and then, no less difficult, you head back down for the same distance.
But is it just a dream that I will be following in Mr Hague Senior's footsteps 20-odd years from now?
I ask not because I fear infirmity. As I said, we are living longer and healthier these days.
The question is whether I will have time to clamber up a mountain.
For it seems we are heading into the age of retirement without retirement!
Somebody at the Department for Works and Pensions has been doing a spot of homework and come up with the revelation that we are working way beyond the age of 65 these days.
In fact, the total of all pensioners (single and couples) receiving income from earnings rose to 17 per cent in 2007-08, compared to 12 per cent 10 years ago.
At least 1.4 million pensioners are still working in retirement, it is estimated.
This is not simply because we all turn into workaholics when we lose our hair and teeth.
People feel they have to work to make ends meet, or at least to maintain a decent standard of living.
And with the Government mucking up pension funds, is there any wonder?
There was a time when these organisations were the soundest investments around. And rightly so. On their shoulders rested the independence and welfare of millions of workers.
They had been led to believe that if they made a financial sacrifice today, putting cash into a pension pot, they would be looked after tomorrow.
Well, those tomorrows are beginning to arrive and we are learning the horrible truth - that we were duped into a false sense of security.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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