Nearly half of UK adults ages 50-70 who retired in first two years of pandemic are in poverty: report

Almost half of older adults living in the United Kingdom who left the workforce in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic fell into poverty, new research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found.

Forty-eight percent of those ages 50-70 entered poverty after retiring in 2020 or 2021, a higher rate than retirees in the UK before the pandemic and bucking the trends of lower overall poverty since 2020.

“Our analysis challenges the perception that exits into inactivity over the pandemic were driven by wealthy individuals who could afford to retire in comfort, and suggests that many individuals were ‘forced’ into early retirement at the start of the pandemic,” IFS researcher Xiaowei Xu said.

In 2019 the poverty rate for recent retirees was 36 percent in the country, according to the research.

Those older retirees were also more likely to have a lower quality of living than those who retired a few years earlier. The study found that 2020-2021 retirees spent less on food and were less likely to receive a pension than earlier retirees as well.

“This suggests that many older workers who left the workforce in the first year of the pandemic were not retiring in comfort,” Xu said.

The comfort levels of retirees since 2021, like amount spent on food and pension levels, returned to about pre-pandemic figures. That signals that the 2020-2021 cohort of retirees is exceptional, researchers said.

“This research shows many older workers were swept out of work by the coronavirus pandemic rather than this being a positive choice,” JRF Chief Analyst Peter Matejic said. “Supporting people back into employment should be a priority for the government alongside ensuring that those who aren’t working can afford the essentials.”

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