{"id":248836,"date":"2026-01-17T02:21:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T02:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/248836\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T02:21:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T02:21:26","slug":"almost-one-in-five-people-expect-to-be-forced-to-work-until-age-70-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/248836\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost one in five people expect to be forced to work until age 70 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Almost one in five <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/work\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/work\/\">workers<\/a> in Ireland don\u2019t believe they will be able to afford <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/retirement\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/retirement\/\">retirement<\/a> until age 70, according to a survey. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The annual Retirement Age Financial Feasibility Survey 2025, carried out by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/pension\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/pension\/\">pension<\/a> company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/royal-london\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/royal-london\/\">Royal London Ireland<\/a>, says early retirement remains \u201ca distant hope\u201d for more than six in 10.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Half of workers expect to retire either at the State pension age of 66, or just before that at age 65. Almost one in five of those over 55 say they never want to fully retire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mark Reilly, pension proposition lead with Royal London Ireland, said: \u201cThe prospect of retiring before the State pension age of 66 remains out of reach for most, who say it simply isn\u2019t financially realistic. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWhile half of workers expect to retire around 65 or 66, a notable one in five believe they want to or may have to keep working until the age of 70. That\u2019s a significant indicator of the financial pressures many households continue to face.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cOn a positive note, we\u2019re also seeing subtle signs of growing confidence. While the numbers are small, the proportion of people who think they could retire by 55 has doubled since the 2024 survey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/politics\/2026\/01\/01\/average-worker-faces-30000-drop-in-income-if-relying-on-state-pension-alone-minister-warns\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Average worker faces \u20ac30,000 drop in income if relying on State pension alone, Minister warnsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said the increase was \u201cparticularly strong\u201d among those aged 45-54, where one in 10 now believe they can achieve this milestone, which is almost triple the number who felt this way in the previous survey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThese are people who are far enough along in their careers to have built a clearer picture of their long-term finances, and the shift suggests that some are starting to feel more in control of their retirement planning,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The survey also showed women are more likely to say they\u2019ll have to work until age 70 (20 per cent as against 16 per cent of men). <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Women are also more likely than men to say they never want to fully retire, with 15 per cent expressing this view compared with 10 per cent of men.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe\u2019re seeing an increase in workers considering staying active in the workforce for longer, whether by choice or necessity,\u201d said Mr Reilly. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cMore than one in 10 workers say they never want to fully retire, and among those over 55 this has climbed sharply. Whether driven by financial necessity, personal fulfilment or a mix of both, it reflects changing attitudes towards work and later life. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cAnd again, women appear more likely than men to say they never want to fully retire, which could be a response to financial pressures or concerns about retiring on lower pension pots.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He added that the rolling out of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/auto-enrolment\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/auto-enrolment\/\">auto-enrolment<\/a> this year \u201chas the potential to close some of the gaps\u201d that currently exist \u2013 particularly for younger workers and women \u2013 by ensuring \u201cmore consistent pension saving earlier in people\u2019s careers\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost one in five workers in Ireland don\u2019t believe they will be able to afford retirement until age&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[12156,72,176,61,60,1612,174,175,1611,52860,1962],"class_list":{"0":"post-248836","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-auto-enrolment","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-pension","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance","16":"tag-retirement","17":"tag-royal-london","18":"tag-work"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}