Occupational social class differences in the impact of COVID-19 related employment disruptions on retirement planning amongst older workers in England

Purpose: This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 related employment disruption on individuals’ retirement planning and whether these experiences differ by occupational social class. Methodology: To explore these issues, we linked data from those who were employed in wave 9 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) main study with wave 1 of the ELSA COVID-19 study (N = 1797). Multinominal regression analyses were conducted to explore whether the interaction between employment disruption and occupational social class was associated with planning to retire earlier or later than previously planned. Findings: The results show that stopping work due to COVID-19 is associated with planning to retire earlier. However, there were no statistically significant interactions between occupational social class and employment disruptions on whether respondents planned to retire earlier or later. Originality/ Value: This paper’s original contribution is in showing that the pandemic has had an impact on retirement decisions. Given the known negative effects of both involuntary early labour market exit our findings suggest that the COVID-19 related employment disruptions are likely to exacerbate social inequalities in health, well-being in later life and, consequently, can help anticipate where there will be need for additional support in later life