Ordered to retire... postal worker fears he may lose house

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/ ... ticle.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A POSTAL worker who is being forced to retire when he turns 65 next month fears he will lose his home if he loses his job.

Gerald Hanson has been told that it is Royal Mail company policy to let him go after his 65th birthday in September.

But Mr Hanson, who lives in St Michael's View, Alvaston, said he wants to work for the company for another year so that he can pay off his fixed term mortgage.

"I've got more than £10,000 left on my mortgage and I don't know how I'm going to afford it if I'm forced to retire."

"All I want is one more year to pay it off."

Mr Hanson and his wife Maureen, who have been married for 26 years, are worried that they will lose their two-bedroom home if they can't pay off their mortgage.

Mr Hanson said: "My pension is only £170 a week and it's nowhere near enough."

"It would break my heart to leave this house. We've been here for 16 years and I've done so much work to it. We've just got it how we want it and now we might have to leave.

"I don't know what we'd do if we lost this house."

Mr Hanson has worked for Royal Mail since 1995, sorting post coming off the planes at East Midlands airport. His current salary is £30,000 a year.

He believes that he is still physically able to do his job and that his presence will be missed if he is forced to leave.

"I'm the most experienced person there and a lot of the other workers have said that they don't know what they'll do without me," he said.

"I've been fighting this for five months now and it's been very stressful. I enjoy my job very much but it's a constant worry. I feel I'm being treated unfairly after all my years of hard work and service."

A spokesperson for Royal Mail said: "Royal Mail – like many other companies – has a retirement age of 65 for its people.

"It is open for any of our people to request to continue working after the age of 65 and this is only granted if the role requires a specialist skill or the vacancy could not be filled in any other way.

"We would stress in following our retirement policy the final decision in this particular case is in no way a reflection on the individual's performance or ability to do his job and we wish him well."

[Stormproof]

Wish my pay was £30k pa. I think he should of planned his mortgage better.

[tailfly12]

Greedy postman he is.

[DGP1]

Wish my pay was £30k pa. I think he should of planned his mortgage better.

I'm with you, I've planned my mortgage to be paid off before I'm 60 (subject to my wife not wanting to move AGAIN) and £30k per year is about double what I earn.

[baldrick]

Payments on a mortgage of £10,000 would only be around £100 a month
so he should be able to afford that on a pension of £170pw - and pay off
some of the capital amount.

[dvbuk55]

With a pension of 170 a week one must assume he has another pension other than RMs because he certainly isn't going to get 170 a week from 14 years service and whatever it is he will be able to commute some of his pension to a lump sum which, even if it is insufficient to pay off the 10k it would certainly make a biggish hole in it and consequently bring the mortgage down...................... still

[axeman]

roayl fail has a retirement age of 65 ............. then how come did they hire a pensioner to run the company most certainly double standards

[baldrick]

With a pension of 170 a week one must assume he has another pension other than RMs

At 65 he will be getting his State Retirement Pension which would be £95 pw I think.

[andy2007]

Wish my pay was £30k pa. I think he should of planned his mortgage better.

It's nice to see such a caring attitude.

Hasn't it occured to you, that as he only joined RM in 1995. There's a good chance he'd have taken the mortgage out, BEFORE then?
He was probably on a better wage, and thought he'd be able to pay it off early. And even if I'm wrong. Don't you think a little compassion is in order?
He's going into Retirement, knowing that he can't pay his bills!

Considering that even RM, aren't denying that he is still capable of doing his job. Counldn't he take them to ET, for Age Discrimination?

[janitor]

We've had the same in our office the chap reached 65, he was still capable of doing the job, and he wanted to carry on for a few more years, but RM said he must go, and the job he did is still vacant after more than 6 months, along with all the other vacancies RM have told the DOM he's not allowed to fill.

[singingpostman]

30K for sorting in the dry and warm ????????????????????

17K for walking/cycling delivering 6 bags of mail for 5 hours in all weathers, how is this possible ?

He must be doing a hell of a lot of O/T.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

One thing does have me concerned about this.

If Royal Mail have a policy for compulsory retirement at 65 - what about when the age for entitlement to State Pension increases to 66 etc.

Are they going to change the policy or just dump us on the state, albeit with a RM pension if entitled.

[dvbuk55]

One thing does have me concerned about this.

If Royal Mail have a policy for compulsory retirement at 65 - what about when the age for entitlement to State Pension increases to 66 etc.

Are they going to change the policy or just dump us on the state, albeit with a RM pension if entitled.

"The state retirement age, which is set to be 65 for men and women by 2020, will rise to 66 between 2024 and 2026, to 67 between 2034 and 2036 and to 68 between 2044 and 2046"

Legally an employer is not required to provide employment after an employees 65th birthday and looking at the scale above it is going to rise incrementally over the next 30 years or so anyway. We all know that 65 is the retiring age and arguably we have 49 years to plan for retirement. IMO it is unreasonable to expect all employers to maintain an ageing workforce, although some companies actively recruit pensioners it is not healthy to maintain an old workforce to the detriment of young people who have their lives ahead of them.

The answer must be to retire with dignity when due and if you wish to supplement your income find a part time job. Most OAPs struggle to pay their bills in this day and age because the state pension is inadequate and most people haven't made adequate provision for the future, understandably so, because no-one can predict how much things are going to be 40 years hence - although they do know it aint gonna be cheaper.

[Stormproof]

Wish my pay was £30k pa. I think he should of planned his mortgage better.

It's nice to see such a caring attitude.

Hasn't it occured to you, that as he only joined RM in 1995. There's a good chance he'd have taken the mortgage out, BEFORE then?
He was probably on a better wage, and thought he'd be able to pay it off early. And even if I'm wrong. Don't you think a little compassion is in order?
He's going into Retirement, knowing that he can't pay his bills!

Considering that even RM, aren't denying that he is still capable of doing his job. Counldn't he take them to ET, for Age Discrimination?

I was just making my own observations, maybe we should blame the banks for giving him a mortgage he should've been able to pay off before retirement. I don't appreciate being called uncaring.

[Stormproof]

Thats gotta be a first for me in over 2 years, being edited by a Mod, feel alot better for getting that off my chest even if it did get deleted