Those working later into retirement are often doing so because they did not engage early enough with their retirement finances, according to Aviva.
Additionally, ‘life events’ such as divorce, bereavement or redundancy may have derailed their plans, stated a new report from the life company.
The research categorised those in retirement into three options: footloose retirees, people who are working later and those who are caring for someone in retirement.
Aviva heard from a mixture of men and women aged between 55-70, all deemed ‘mid-market’ consumers, owner occupiers with pension pots between £50,000 and £100,000 and no final salary scheme membership.
In the working later category, most have some financial motivation, whilst some are proactively planning to work later in order to boost their retirement income when they do retire.
Others are choosing to work later in order to maintain a certain lifestyle, rather than out of strict necessity.
The footloose category, who expected a retirement that matched their ideals, were often disappointed with their income to some extent and had scaled back ambitions accordingly.
For a minority, their finances had truly met their expectations, although this was often the result of accident rather than design.
However, regardless of their financial outcomes, all footloose participants in the research expressed a clear need for support with financial planning, with many realising in their late fifties that their pensions were unlikely to perform as hoped; although few took decisive action to remedy the situation.
In terms of those who are caring for someone in retirement, this had a significant impact on experiences of retirement, both emotionally and financially.
The report found that caring for a partner or relative took up a significant amount of time, derails retirement finances and can be a lonely experience.
Additionally, retirees caring for grandchildren were found to be much less disrupted, although there were still demands on time, being ‘taken for granted’ and out of pocket from expenses that felt ‘too small’ to raise, but did impact on their finances.
ruth.gillbe@ft.com