“If I retire earlier than the state pension age and then my husband loses his job, it would be a catastrophe,” she added. “I know there are things like universal credit but we’ve never had to lean on government support before and I’m not sure that my husband would even entertain the idea.”
Since the Equality Act 2010 made it illegal to discriminate against someone based on age, employment rates among people aged 50-plus have steadily risen. Before the pandemic, rates had reached a historic high, with a record 10.7 million people aged 50 and over in work – nearly a third of the UK workforce.