The impact of extending paid work later in life on health and wellbeing: Using the past to guide the future

我们的项目将研究老龄化社会的一个关键问题：在英国，整个生命过程中的不平等如何与晚年的有偿工作相关。这个问题越来越重要，因为英国和世界上许多其他政府一样，通过推迟国家养老金年龄（SPA）和其他措施，正在迅速延长老年人的工作寿命。这些政策改革影响到数百万人，但其对健康和福祉的影响尚不清楚。这些政策对人口是有害、有益还是毫无影响？要回答这个问题，我们需要了解影响晚年有偿工作、健康和幸福之间复杂关系的终身驱动因素。我们的项目扩展了现有的英国-加拿大合作，该合作正在研究五个国家（包括英国）的生命历程对晚年工作轨迹的影响及其对健康和福祉的影响。我们将以这项工作为基础，解决在英国从事SPA及SPA以外的有偿工作对健康和福祉的影响。这很重要，因为理解那些在SPA之外工作的人与那些在SPA或之前退休的人之间的区别是理解在不加剧社会不平等的情况下扩展SPA的范围的关键。在工业社会，与提供国家养老金相关的有偿劳动的近乎普遍退休，被誉为老年人福祉的重大进步。然而，越来越明显的是，随着寿命的延长，社会福利体系面临着重大的财政挑战。作为回应，包括英国在内的许多国家实施了退休改革，如废除强制退休和提高国家养老金年龄。这些变化在个人希望在标准年龄（例如60岁或65岁）有资金退休的愿望与在社会老龄化背景下人口工作更长时间的经济需要之间产生了紧张关系。此外，人们越来越担心这些政策可能对不同的社会阶层产生不同的影响。然而，这一领域的大多数先前研究都集中在提前退休对健康的影响上。我们已经知道那些提前退休的人和那些工作超过SPA的人的特点。例如，在英国，不健康和残疾是提前退休的最重要原因。那些在SPA之外工作的人更有可能受过更好的教育，身体健康，有一个有偿工作的伴侣，但他们也更有可能是自雇人士，兼职工作，在妇女中，从事低技能工作。然而，据我们所知，还没有人讨论过达到或超过SPA对健康和幸福的影响。我们对影响谁达到或超过SPA的生命历程轨迹也知之甚少；或者它们如何塑造晚年工作与健康或经济资源之间的关系。人们对可能将有偿工作与身心健康结果联系起来的潜在生物学机制也知之甚少。最后，通过定义SPA和健康之间的关系是如何随着时间和人群的变化而变化的，我们将更好地为未来政策决定的潜在影响的辩论提供信息。了解这些问题对于制定政策至关重要，这些政策可以最大限度地减少不平等在整个生命过程中可能持续存在的方式。我们的跨学科团队将在涵盖三个主要领域的项目中解决这些问题：i)全面评估SPA前后工作对健康和福祉的生命过程决定因素和后果；Ii)评估这些关系是否（以及如何）在不同的人群中随时间而改变；以及iii)为具有不同生命轨迹的人建立达到和超过SPA的财务后果模型。

Our project will examine a crucial question for ageing societies: how inequalities across the life course relate to paid work in later life in the UK. This issue is of growing importance since the UK, in common with many other governments across the world, is rapidly extending the working lives of older adults through the postponement of State Pension Age (SPA) and other measures. These policy reforms affect millions of people, yet their implications for health and wellbeing are unknown. Do these policies harm, benefit or have little effect on the population? To answer this, we need to understand the lifelong drivers affecting the complex relationship between paid work in later life, health and wellbeing. Our project extends an existing UK-Canadian collaboration that is examining lifecourse influences on later life work trajectories and their implications for health and wellbeing across five countries (including the UK). We will build on this work to address the implications for health and wellbeing of undertaking paid work up to and beyond SPA in the UK. This is important because comprehending what distinguishes those who work beyond SPA from those who retire at or before SPA is key to understanding the extent to which there is scope to extend SPA without exacerbating social inequalities. In industrial societies, near universal retirement from paid labour linked to the provision of state pensions has been heralded as a significant advance in older people's wellbeing. It is increasingly clear, however, that as longevity increases social welfare systems face significant fiscal challenges. In response, many countries, including the UK, have implemented retirement reforms such as abolishing mandatory retirement and raising state pension ages. These changes have fostered tension between the desire by individuals for a funded retirement at the normative age (e.g. 60 or 65) and the perceived economic need for populations to work longer in the context of societal ageing. Moreover, there is increasing concern that these policies may have disparate effects on different segments of society. However, most prior research in this area has focused on the effect of early retirement on health. We already know something of the characteristics of those who retire early and those who work beyond SPA. For instance, in Britain, ill-health and disability are the most important reasons for early retirement. Those who work beyond SPA are more likely to be better educated, in good health and have a partner in paid work but they are also more likely to be self-employed, to work part-time and, among women, to be in low skill jobs. However, to our best knowledge, nobody has addressed the consequences for health and wellbeing of working up to or beyond SPA. We also know little about the life course trajectories that influence who works up to or beyond SPA; or how they shape the relationships between later life work and health or economic resources. There is also little understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms that might link paid work and physical and psychological health outcomes. Last, by defining how the relationship between SPA and health has changed over time, and across cohorts, we will be better placed to inform debate on the potential impact of future policy decisions. Understanding these issues is critical to the development of policy that minimizes how inequalities may be perpetuated through the lifecourse.Our interdisciplinary team will tackle these issues in projects that cover three major areas: i) a comprehensive assessment of the lifecourse determinants and consequences for health and wellbeing of working up to and beyond SPA; ii) an evaluation of whether (and how) these relationships have changed for different cohorts and over time; and iii) modelling of the financial consequences of working up to and beyond SPA for those with different lifecourse trajectories.