Retirement not end of road says community minister

| 01/10/2011

(CNS): The community needs to embrace the skills and experience of older people and encourage their participation in the community through part time and voluntary opportunities the community affairs minister said in his message marking International Day of Older Persons on Saturday. Mike Adam said people needed to change the way they thought about old age and older persons especially as the size of this demographic grows in the Caribbean region and many people already work well beyond retirement age. He also pointed to the need to help older people master new technology.

“A good start is changing the way we relate to old age. Representing about 13 percent of the Caribbean population, seniors — and their experience and skills — present a wealth of opportunity for society,” Adam stated. “We can tap into this resource by creating part-time, volunteer and other opportunities for our older people, so they can remain in the mainstream longer. Seeing retirement age and beyond as the end of the road means throwing away lifetimes of valuable experience.”

The United Nations' International Day of Older Persons is celebrated on 1 October to recognize the contributions of older persons and to raise awareness on issues that affect their lives. Locally, senior citizens and their contributions to society will be celebrated throughout the month of October with community activities including the annual seniors’ retreat and wellness fair.

See Ministers’ full message below along with senior activities throughout October

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  1. fidelity roth ira says:

    client retires at 65 and starts receiving social security. how much is he allowed to make over his ss and still not be taxed on thess income?, if he starts taking income out of his Roth IRA, does that income effect the amount of ss he could be taxed on or since it’s tax-free income, it wont effect the ss income at all?

  2. West Bayer says:

    Our poor Caymanians – the  older people want to work, but can't – and the young'ins who can work – WON'T!! And it all has to do with the fact that Gov't especially the Social Services Dept too busy given away money to every crack head, every lazy arz and every foreigner who come here and breed wid  em types to get to stay yah! GET UNNA ACT TOGETHER AND STOP HARBORING LAZINESS!!! AND TAKE CARE OF OUR ELDERS….I KNOW OF 3 NOW – WHO PASSED AWAY A YEAR INTO RETIREMENT AFTER WORKING FOR WELL INTO 50 YEARS!! GOV'T NEED TO CONSIDER THE FACT THAT SOME PEOPLE CAN'T LIVE "NORMAL" WHEN THEY ARE WILLING AND ABLE TO WORK BUT ARE FORCED TO STAY HOME AND ROT! 

  3. Anonymous says:

    Can we please retire Elio S at 13 or whatever age he is right now?  Please

    • Anonymous says:

      There is clearly a need for a review of the age 60 retirement age. Perhaps govt needs to look at records and understand that cayman too has a lot of baby boomers who can and r being put to pasture, who are healthy and have ability and are productive in their jobs. In addition, what about redundancies, should here not also be some dorm of process as in the uk that provides dignity in removal of persons in a manner akin to being literally thrown out. We need a change in these laws or we might find that there will be a much bigger rate of people applying for social services, considering that the pension law has not been in place for a significant period to allow people to have a full pension at 60 and moreover much money has been lost in the pension schemes due to economic downturn over the last 3 years.

      • Anonymous says:

        agree with all you said… except that elio needs to retire.  smart young guy like that has probably made enough money and 'connections' to get him through his golden years.

  4. Anonymous says:

    European Court of Human Rights

     

    I suggest Mr Adams (Who I had very high hopes for but am extremely dissapointed in his performance as a sheep)  reads ECHR aricle 14  and protocol 12.

     

    An example of the application of these provisions in the area of employment concerns an employer’s application of a mandatory retirement age, which results in an individual’s retirement – the individual’s rights under either under Article 14 or potentially Protocol 12 may have been violated.

     

    Comming to court near you.

    • Legal Seagull says:

      Err, no they are not.

      The UK has not signed up to protocol 12.

      Article 14 requires the interaction with other rights for it to kick in and age based discrimination would not involve other rights unless perhaps it resulted in the individual being unable to stay in Cayman without some rights protections.

      • Anonymous says:

        Under UK Law

         

        You must be allowed to work until you are 65 (this is the same for both men and women).

        If your employer tries to force you to retire under the age of 65‚ or their own higher normal retirement age‚ you can claim for unfair dismissal. Employers will only be able to justify forced retirement under the age of 65 in exceptional circumstances.

        For employees over the age of 65‚ it is lawful for an employer to force them to retire‚ aslong as they follow the procedure outlined below. Employees have the right to request to continue working beyond the date when the employer wants them to retire, but the employer does not have to agree with this request.

        Working after State Pension Age does not affect your right to the state pension. However‚ you can choose to delay drawing your state pension while you’re still working and this will entitle you to a higher annual income or a lump sum payment when you do retire.

        These rules only apply to employees and civil servants. Other workers‚ such as police officers‚ office holders‚ and partners in firms are not covered and so forced retirement at any age will have to be justified.

        • Anonymous says:

          Government is the main offender stopping older persons from work and sending them into retirement withot pension or medical plans. Try applyng to many places in the Cayman Islands including Government if you are 60 and see what the answer is. The manager may tell you we will call you back . Yea right you wait on that call. Yet they bring in People from the Uk who are well past 60 and going on to 70s who had already retired in their own country and are on pension and medical in their country, and employ them locally. Of course their spouces must come with them and will most likely get a job too and get one that caymanian could easily do. Talk is cheap. Discrimination because of age and other conditions is rife in Cayman Islands. If you think I am lying check it for yourselves. They are setting themselves up for heighten social security budget in the future when these people get older unless they plan to euthanise them.

  5. Anonymous says:

    The arguments in favour of raising the retirement age are well known and sound BUT in our civil service, being able to get rid of some of the non productive seat warmers at 60 is a major, major benefit. If you check into it, all the civil servants who want to continue after 60 are the useless ones who collect a paycheck and spend it without really having had to work for it. And of course they can double dip as long as they are rehired. This would be true no matter what the retirement age is unless the law is changed to prevent double dipping and who is going to do that? No one.

  6. MER says:

    Well my mother did not wish to retire and Government insisted, she was still fully capable of working, but she reached 65! Practice what you preach you hypocrytical government!!! If they are too old to work for Gov why is Government trying to beg sympathy from other employers and make them feel guilty for not offering work? I am damn sickand tired of hearing our MLA's ranting nonesense!!!!

  7. robert hamaty says:

    highly skilled profesion  airline captains  65 is now the retirement age. 

  8. Anonymous says:

    Hypocricy to suggest that people 60 plus should not continue to work for pay. – Politicians have changed the rules so that only they are allowed to double dip collecting pensions and salaries and even writing rules so that they can cash out pensions immediately so that they do not get caught with no pension like the civil servants.

  9. Concerned Caymanian says:

    Perhaps the bill could address the mandatory retirement age of 60 or even lower that many firms have, including government..  In this economy, many of us cannot afford to retire that young.  We have education, skills and experience that are just going to waste, and we cannot be replaced by all the young people who are out of work, who do not have the same skill set.

  10. Retirement says:

    The retirees should be mentors.  They should have an agency where they can list their contact details and their skills. They can mentor the next generation, whether the workforce generation or the school children.

    • Anonymous says:

      The private sector use this retirement age of 60 to get rid of Caymanians. I know so many Caymanians who lost their private sector jobs because.  In the private sector, this is just another excuse to replace a Caymanian with a permit holder.

       

      Perhaps the UDP could do this one thing and say that at least they did one worthwhile thing for the Caymanian public while they were in the house.

      I am a Caymanian  who work in the private sector, banking to be exact, and turns 60 next year, and already management have an expat lined up to take my job.

      Hope the UDP can summons up the political will to raise the age to 65 and can save me before then.

       

       

  11. Just Commentin' says:

    Shame on you, Mike Adam! Your comments regarding the revamping of society's attitude towards retired folks are hugely hypocritical considering the mandatory retirement age of the Cayman Islands government is 60, and you seem ok with that.

    Mr. Adam, I agree with you on this one: "Representing about 13 percent of the Caribbean population, seniors — and their experience and skills — present a wealth of opportunity for society…". And in your message you suggest that society needs to change the way they think about old age and older persons. So why does your government not lead by example and put that wealth of opportunity to good and productive use and in doing so bring about a true change of attitude, instead of ending forcing older employees to end their productive careers? Oh…silly me, I almost forgot that you and your UDP cronies are a "Do as we say, not as we do" organisation.

    My advice to Mike Adam is "Physician heal thyself"!  He would do well to bring his spiel to the House and try to get his government to change their views on relating to older folks before he tries to get the general population to change theirs.

    It is a disgrace to discriminate because of age; putting people out to pasture based solely on age is certainly a heinous form of discrimination regardless of how you try to twist or sugar coat it. Almost all people with whom I am familiar who were placed on mandatory retirement by the Cayman Islands Government had several more productive years left and a good percentage of them would have worked well beyond the mandatory retirement age.

    The UDP government is not contributing to the Civil Service's pension fund. Barring a miracle, at some point in the future the Cayman Islands is going to find it impossible to meet its pension obligations to retiring civil servants. One way to somewhat mitigate this dire situation is to allow employees to work beyond the current mandatory retirement age, and to collect pension when they finally do retire and not at some arbitrary "milestone" age. I know of some civil servants who, after being retired, secured positions in the private sector and are getting their government pension and a salary. How wasteful is that?

    The current mandatory retirement age is another example of the utter nonsense of having a motto from Scripture – "He hath founded it upon the seas" – and pretty much flipping a finger at the "He" and His writing in our day to day practise. The bible says that "The hoary (grey) head is a crown of glory" (Proverbs 16:13) The Cayman Islands government says "Regardless of what God says, the grey head means we need to get rid of you because you are too old to be of value to us as a worker".

    I do realise that some people who have put in many years of service may desire to retire as soon as they are eligible to do so; perhaps making retirement at 60 an option rather than a requirement is a viable alternative. Medical or other conditions may render an employee unable to be a productive employee. Making older workers who elect to work past 60 subject to periodic review and basing their retirement on an objective assessment is certainly better than "throwing away lifetimes of valuable experience" based solely on age.

    Mike Adam states that "We can tap into this resource by creating part-time, volunteer and other opportunities for our older people, so they can remain in the mainstream longer." Hmmm…? Part-time programmes? Volunteer work? Why not simply keep some of those "in the mainstream" longer rather than retiring them? That would make sense, but then again making sense is not what Mike Adam and the UDP are all about, is it?

    • Anonymous says:

      I totally agree with Just Commentin:  the UDP government needs to do something about the present retirement age as set out by the law.

      For the most part, it is the Caymanians who are affected most by this mandatory retirement age of 60. Know some banks/companies who ask the Caymanian to retire, yet the keep on the permit holder.

      This present law only further assist the unfair practices that are currently being perpetrated against Caymanians and this is the UDPs opportunity to make good.

      Make retirement optional at 60 , that way anyone who has actually planned to retire at 60 can still live their dream of retiring at 60. The rest of us can continue to contribute to our pension and retire at 65 years with grace and dignity.

      Mike Adams, you need to take ownership of passaging this change through the House yourself, don't wait on anyone else to do it for you!

  12. Anonymous says:

    Government needs to legislate the retirement age from 60 to 65; otherwise companies will continueto demand that people (mostly Caymanians)  retire at age 60 even while they still have so muchto offer and are willing and able to perform.

    Mr. Premier please deal with this- you said you would!

    • noname says:

      Every single word that was said in the previous comments is correction.  Too many able-bodies of 60 years are forced to retire.

      Just look at what Government did to the Office Manager for the Elections office.  Retired her, and the office went to shambles, then they had to rehire her to straighten back the office and publish a Voting List.  Which had not been published since October 2010.

      Thanks to MLA Arden McLean for bringing the Elections office situation to light in the Legislative Assembly.  He surely made the Deputy Government look  inefficient and had him all "balled" up.