The Federal Government has known for most of the past three years that many Australian retirees have been disappointed by their decision with many wishing they could have kept working.
In a submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into improving the superannuation savings of people under 40, the Federal Department of Health and Ageing has released research revealing a significant gap between people’s expectations of retirement and its reality.
The research, carried out in 2003, strongly validates the Government’s new retirement incomes policy, particularly its implementation of a pre-retirement pension regime.
The Department of Health and Ageing research found that 21 per cent of those who had retired wished they had kept working full-time while 26 per cent reported they would have preferred to continue working on a part-time basis.
This compared to 44 per cent who said they were happy they had stopped working altogether.
The departmental submission said that a perception that their financial resources were not sufficient for their needs probably explained why many of the 47 per cent of respondents wished they had continued to be engaged in paid employment.
However, it said attitudes to ageing had also played a part in people’s desire to be seen as worthwhile in circumstances where community perceptions of older people in Australia were generally negative.
