Retirement Decisions of Seniors in Poland in the Light of the Qualitative Research
Retirement Decisions of Seniors in Poland in the Light of the Qualitative Research

Author(s): Kamila Bielawska
Subject(s): Labor relations, Gerontology, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: retirement; decisions; Poland; effective retirement age;
Summary/Abstract: Although the Polish economy, labour market and retirement system have been going through serious changes over the last thirty years, the effective retirement age in Poland is still relatively low. The aim of the paper was to evaluate if the main reasons to retire among Polish pensioners have been changing through time. The analysis is based on the qualitative research carried out in November 2017 in a form of individual in-depth interviews (IDI) with seniors in different age groups (65-74; 75-84; 85+) for whom the old-age pension is a main source of income. Preliminary results have shown that seniors, despite of their age, tended to retire as soon as possible. Respondents aged 65-74 often indicated that during retirement they were continuing economic activity for a few years and some of them, who quickly retired and did not continue their work, expressed the opinion that from the perspective of time it was a wrong decision. Seniors in older ages (75+) reported disability or health problems as an important reason of early retirement and leaving the labour market (transition from disability pension to old-age pension was treated as a natural path). This factor was less visible in opinions of younger retires. Few of them pointed out that they retired as they wanted to take the advantage of a leisure time. A retrospective look at pension decisions indicated as the results of the conducted study may provide some interesting conclusions for public policies in the field of pension systems.

• Details
• Contents