“New Zealand has got a number of policies in place that actually encourage older people to continue in paid work that don’t actually exist in other countries. And this is really giving people flexibility and choice to decide when they’re going to exit from paid work.”
In some countries, there was a mandatory retirement age.
“And because New Zealand Super is not mean-tested, there’s no disincentive to continue work beyond age 65,” she said.
“So all of these things are playing a bit of a role when you do comparisons with other countries.”
She said a 25 per cent workforce participation rate of New Zealanders over the age of 65 was also one of the largest such groups in the OECD.
“There are a whole lot of things going on in the background that are actually encouraging ongoing participation in the workforce for older workers in New Zealand.”
She said there were also government policies to encourage employers to improve workplace flexibility for older workers.
“We know from research that people are wanting to transition into retirement and not just stop altogether.
“And we know it’s really important to eliminate ageism, or age discrimination in the workforce, and really important for training and upskilling for older workers to allow them to continue working if that’s what they choose to do.”
The Retirement Commission wanted a cross-party political agreement to keep the superannuation age at 65.
In February, Commissioner Jane Wrightson said a superannuation age of 65 was “perfectly affordable” at the moment, but if that changed, access to NZ Super could be income tested.
National wanted to raise the age to 67 from 2044, while Labour was sticking with 65.
