Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Retirement in Spain

Spaniards don’t want to work after 60

A study carried out by La Caixa entitled ‘The generation in transition: between work and retirement’ which looked at the personal and social consequences of an ageing population was presented last week in Madrid by the head of Sociology for the University of Madrid Víctor Pérez-Díaz and the lecturer on Sociology Juan Carlos Rodríguez.

The most significant finding was that Spaniards between 50 and 70 years old are not in favour of prolonging their working life after they reach 60 despite the present government’s policy of delaying the age of retirement to 70 years old by offering a number of economic incentives. It

Pérez-Díaz said that politicians would encounter deliberate resistance against delaying retirement and pointed out that only 25% of workers over 50 were considering retiring at the age of 64.

Another significant finding was that those included in the study expressed their deep concerns over the economic future of Spain. This is particularly significant given that the study was carried out in 2006 when the economic problems the country is experiencing today hadn’t emerged yet.

The study also showed that property ownership was the most important household expense for Spanish families. For example 91% of those questioned between 60 and 69 years old owned their own homes which is a figure much higher than the European average.

However the study also showed that a fifth of Spanish families nearing retirement age were still paying off a mortgage. Between around 20 and 27% of 50 to 65 year olds were still paying off a mortgage for their first home. This percentage was much lower at just 7% for those aged between 65 and 70 years old.

The study carried out by La Caixa also demonstrated that the transition from working to retirement resulted in a significant drop in income for most households. For example for an average household monthly income of 2.771 euros dropped 19% to 2.245 euros and the drop in income was even more severe at around 26.4% for those on lower incomes.
Bookmark and Share
posted by Euroresidentes at 8:41 AM

Google
 

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home