Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-02T17:30:15.055Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

four - Comparing health and employment in England and the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

Sarah Vickerstaff
Affiliation:
University of Kent
Chris Phillipson
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
Ross Wilkie
Affiliation:
Keele University
Get access

Summary

Introduction

This chapter addresses the role played by health in later life, especially in the context of pressures on people to remain in employment through their 60s and beyond. The 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review indicated that the state pension age (SPA) is to start rising above 65 as early as 2018, reaching 66 in 2020 (HM Treasury, 2010). This means that many people in their mid-50s today will have to work longer than either anticipated or planned. In the meantime, the government is encouraging continued employment by phasing out the default retirement age of 65. As a result, with a few exceptions employers will be forbidden from retiring staff on the basis of their age by October 2011 (BIS, 2010). This represents a considerable policy shift for the UK. Age discrimination legislation was not introduced until 2006, following an EU directive, and this only gave employees the right to request employment past age 65 (Sargeant, 2006). The rationale given for the impending changes includes ‘… demographic change; the financial benefits [of working] to both the individual and the wider economy; and the health and social benefits many people gain from working later into life’ (BIS, 2010, p 5).

While the financial and health benefits of working are used as a rationale for extending working life, surprisingly little is known about how health and wealth interact to influence employment past 65. This has led to an imperfect understanding of whether employment past 65 in the coming years is feasible for those in most need of earning in later life. In general, health is likely to have exerted a particularly strong influence on continued employment in the UK. Qualitative research by Vickerstaff suggests that line managers have been crucial in deciding who can continue working past normal retirement age, typically basing decisions on the perceived interests of the firm (Vickerstaff et al, 2003; Vickerstaff, 2006a, 2006b). Research on the impact of the 2006 legislation suggests it has done little to alter the domination of a ‘business case approach’ to allowing continued employment (Flynn, 2010). This is likely to limit opportunities to continue working for poorer workers.

Type
Chapter
Information
Work, Health and Wellbeing
The Challenges of Managing Health at Work
, pp. 59 - 78
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×