Why retirement is bad for your health

Retiring without a plan of how to spend your free time could seriously dent your health.

The important issue of what to do when you retire has been in the news recently. What do people want to do after they retire and how can those decisions affect their health and happiness?

A new report from the Institute of Economic Affairs gives us some direction: it finds that those who keep working tend to live healthier lives.

Living longer and working less

Astoundingly, despite our longer lives, the report also shows that a far lower proportion of men between the ages 55 and 69 are still in work compared with 1968. Presumably the report focuses on men to make comparison easier, since far fewer women worked back then.

Thanks largely to increases in state support, retiring is more affordable for more people, both men and women. More than 30% of men aged 55-59 are already retired. Less than 10% in that age group were already retired 45 years ago. For those aged 60-64, retired numbers have risen from 20% to 50%.

Retirement is bad for your health

However, new research presented in the paper indicates that being retired decreases physical and mental health. It also found that:

• Retirement decreases the likelihood of being in 'very good' or 'excellent' self-assessed health by about 40%.
• Retirement increases the probability of suffering from clinical depression by about 40%.

This sort of research isn't easy

There are difficulties writing reports like this that make it hard to analyse the evidence.

There's the large problem that many people will retire because they're less physically or mentally fit – they're not unfit because they've retired.

Also, our general health has improved, so the report has to account for increased wealth, health education, and better medical and healthcare.

Then you have the problem of perceived health. People perceive their condition incorrectly due to subconscious biases, so you'll have some retirees who say they're less healthy, and believe they're less healthy, because they don't want to be seen as lazy and exploiting the state. To complicate matters, that could also be seen as a mental health issue.

However, the author appears confident he's compensated for enough of these sorts of problems, and that there's a genuine, large decline in health for retired people compared to those who continue to work.

What's the cause?

Is it simply that you can buy healthier food because you're working more? Is it that you have fewer worries about money?

Perhaps you're more active because you're moving about for work? Is it the extra social interaction from work colleagues and customers? Is it your diet, which might also change after retirement?

Or could it be that you can afford to do more active things in your leisure time? Is it having a routine you've become comfortable with, rather than facing the stress of something completely new?

The paper doesn't satisfy my curiosity on these questions, but real, individual examples can guide us. Take Nell McFadden, for example, who was interviewed on the BBC Today programme after the report. She said that the first few months of retirement were "absolutely magic", but then "all the lovely time became a burden to me". She became depressed and started having panic attacks.

Her doctor advised her to get out in the community and get involved. She became the chair of the Inverclyde Elderly Forum and "it made a big difference. It's my “career” as I call it". She has been the chair for nearly 25 years now.

She said: "I would advise anyone who is retiring not to retire before they decide what they're going to do afterwards, because if you leave a big blank...all that lovely time can be a complete nightmare."

I don't think you should underestimate the importance of this advice. By all means, plan to take a few months to just sit back. But you should also plan what you're going to do after that, and try to get it set up in advance if possible, much like you normally set up a new job before quitting your old one.

Working can be the easy option

If you like your job, that's still the easiest way to stay active. Most jobs don't change the world and most individuals doing those jobs won't improve the whole of society, but by continuing to do your bit you're still doing something useful – and you're being paid for this fulfillment.

We're all different. A friend of mine retired recently. He and his habits are now driving his wife insane full time, but he's enjoying doing absolutely nothing.

Yet clearly retirement doesn't always happen as early or as smoothly as we'd hope. If you don't like your job, you should be doing everything you can now to move into one you do like, because you might have to be doing it long after you thought you could stop. If you assume you'll be able move early into a healthy, happy retirement, I think you're taking a big risk.

More on retirement:

What to do if you are retired and still in debt

How to choose when you will retire

You must put 20% of your salary towards your pension!

Lifestyling: the 'low risk' pension tactic that could decimate your pot

What is income drawdown?

Be a pension millionaire!