1. Work, retirement, health and care: Changes across cohorts and the implications for working beyond state pension age
Glaser, Karen, Di Gessa, Giorgio, Corna, Laurie, Platts, Loretta, Stuchbury, Rachel, Worts, Diana, McDonough, Peggy, Sacker, Amanda, and Price, Debora
WHERL is an interdisciplinary consortium funded by the cross-research council Lifelong Health and Wellbeing (LLHW) programme under Extending Working Lives (ES/L002825/1)

2. The WHERL consortium is investigating a crucial question for ageing societies: How inequalities across the lifecourse relate to paid work in later life in the UK.
Our main aim is to investigate lifecourse influences on later life work trajectories and the implications for health and wellbeing of working up to and beyond the state pension age.
The project builds on an existing UK-Canadian collaboration examining lifecourse influences on later life work trajectories across several European countries and the US.

3. Research themes
Using a wide variety of complex large scale datasets, our interdisciplinary team are tackling projects that cover three major areas:
i) a comprehensive assessment of lifecourse determinants and consequences for health and wellbeing of working up to and beyond state pension age;
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 state pension age for those with different lifecourse trajectories.

4. Key Research Question
How have work and family experiences across the life course changed across cohorts, and how are these patterns related to paid work in the years leading up to, and beyond, the SPA?

5. Background
Over one-quarter of adults between the ages of 50 and the current State Pension Age (SPA) in the UK are not in the labour market
The government response: packages of policy reforms which include raising the state pension age (SPA)
Life course continuity: earlier experiences shape subsequent engagement in relation to retirement (O’Rand 1996 and O’Rand, Henretta & Krecker 1992)

6. Theory ‘Attachment hypothesis’ vs. ‘opportunity costs’
Women (using US 1984 SIPP) who worked continuously more likely to work – evidence for attachment (Pienta et al )
More recent work using BHPS ( ) also shows evidence for attachment , i.e. women with longer periods in labour marker and shorter periods of family care more likely to be in paid work after SPA (Finch 2013)
But, also evidence of opportunity costs in that married women more likely to be in paid work, and divorced/separated women who remained unpartnered.
Previous work older people’s labour force participation has found significant relationship with earlier work-family pathways. Pienta et al found for women (using 1984 Survey of Income and Program Participation) those classified as continuous workers (so worked continuously throughout their lives to the point of retirement - traditionally male pattern) more likely be in paid work (so fits with attachment hypothesis)
More recent work Finch 1994 using BHPS (work and family histories form women and men and relate these to who works past SPA) also found evidence attachment hypothesis. So, the longer women in employment the more likely work in later life & women with shorter periods family care more likely to keep working) But also some evidence for opportunity costs in that married women were more likely keep working (perhaps making up for periods raising family out of labour market?) and divorced/separated women remain unmarried.
In this presentation, we examine how earlier experiences in the labour market and the family have changed across cohorts, and how these patterns are related to work in the years leading up to and beyond the state pension age.

7. Methods
Retirement Survey (1988/89), British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) 1998, English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) 2008
Retrospective life histories
Sample: women aged and men born at each time point.
Use optimal matching analysis to summarise employment, marital and fertility histories between the ages of for women and for men
Consider work up to and beyond SPA (self-report paid work month/week prior to interview)
Any PT or FT employment at ages & for women; & for men
We use optimal matching analysis (OMA) to summarise individual employment histories.
It involves classifying individual histories according to frequent and meaningful patterns with the help of “model” or “synthetic” sequences (Wiggins et al. 2007).
Respondents are classified according to the “synthetic” history they match most closely.
The final result for one participant could be that their history is classified as: “full-time working throughout” or “family care to part-time work”.

8. Labour Market Histories
Women 16-54
Full-time throughout to 54
Non-employed throughout to 54
Full-time early exit (at 49)
Family carer to part-time (Short break 26-32, PT to 54)
Family carer to full-time (Long break 22-34, FT to 54)
Family carer throughout (FT to 21, break 22-54)
Full-time to part-time (FT to 21, PT 22-54)

9. Family Histories Fertility Histories Marital Histories No children
One early
One later
Two early
Two/three later
Early large
Marital Histories
Never married
Long-term married
Marriage ends early

10. Key Covariates Lifetime – Labour Market and Fertility Age
No partner, with partner in LBF, and with partner not in LBF
Ever separated/divorced and ever widowed
Care provision
Tenure, education, income
Health: SRH, health limitations, mobility
Couple decisions key – so if partner in LBF stay working longer (OR ever married, ever divorced, ever widowed and marriage patterns; % time married; timing of marriage early OR late) Those married with children stay working longer – women (Finch 2014)
Opportunity costs in terms of divorced women who remain without partner more likely keep working.
Those with children more likely stay in labour force than childless – those without kids more likely exit labour force in retirement years – may have access to retirement benefits earlier (Pienta in 1999 using 1984 SIPP and also Karsten German data).
Early childbearing (before 24/27), late 24/27 or later – this is important those who had children later stay working longer – less likely to retire (Pienta and Karsten) – maintain strong ties to labour force. Finch similar results to Pienta those who had last child later more likely to stay in LBF (those childless or early childbearing no effect on LBF)
Education no effect on LBF (Pienta et al. 1994; Karsten 2004) Karsten 2013 – SHARELIFE now see effect of education – more educated stay.
Those eligible for pensions stay longer working (Pienta et al. 1994)
Cohort differences – KARSTEN 2013 SHARELIFE – Mothers in pre-1940 cohorts stay working whereas mothers in post-1940 cohorts more likely to exit labour market compared to childless.

11. Labour Market History Labour Market History Women 55-64 1988/89 RS
2008 ELSA (wave 4)
FT up to 54 19 24
Not employed/FC 28 17
Early exit at 49 7
FT to PT/FC to PT 32 36
FC to FT 15 16
Total
100

12. Women 55-64 Labour Market History Women 1988/89 (RS) Women 2008 (ELSA)
No work
<=20
21+ hrs
FT up to 54 59 6 35 30 15 55
Not employed/FC 88 7 5 76 10 13
Early exit at 49 86 11 4 79 17 3
FT to PT/FC to PT 48 33 19 43 25 31
FC to FT 52 37 47

13. Women 55-64 Partnership and Fertility History Women 1988/89 (RS)
Women 2008 (ELSA)
No work
<=20
21+ hrs
No partner 68 7 25 49 16 35
Partner not in paid work 78 10 12 70 13 17
Partner in paid work 47 23 30 32 45
No children 73 20 53 31
Child early 64 19 51
Child late 57 22 37 44

14. Multinomial Logistic Regression
Women 55-64
Multinomial Logistic Regression
Women 1988/89 (RS)
Women 2008 (ELSA)
PT vs. no work
FT vs. no work
FT up to 54
1.00
NET/FC
0.52
0.04***
0.30***
0.09***
Early exit at 49
0.91
0.05***
0.67
0.03***
FT to PT/FC to PT
4.78***
0.39***
1.32
0.46***
FC to FT
1.81
1.07
0.44**
0.56**
Note: Controlling for children early and late (ref no children); no current partner and partner not in LBF (ref. partner in LBF); A-level, O-level, CSE, technical, no educational qualifs (ref. university and above); own home with mortgage and rents or social housing (ref. own home outright); income quintiles (ref. highest); Providing care for sick or disabled adult (ref. not providing care; Self-rated health – good, fair or poor (ref. very good/excellent); Mobility limitations (ref. no mobility limitation) and limiting health conditions (ref. no limiting health conditions.

15. Summary ‘Attachment Hypothesis’
Women with continuous full-time labour market history consistently more likely to be in paid work at older ages.
Also true for those who had children later and who have partners in paid work.
More advantaged characteristics
Those in lowest income quintile and with poorer health consistently less likely to be paid work in later life
‘Opportunity Costs’
For women in 2008 those ever divorced or separated significantly more likely to be in full-time paid work at older ages

16. Future Steps BHPS 1998 Additional covariates:
Eligible for occupational pension (other than state pension)
Usual social class
Caregiving histories

17. Questions