With a growing elderly population in the UK, questions such as what constitutes retirement, how it is perceived, and how it is funded, are of crucial importance to all. This text describes how those in retirement today support themselves financially, and how retirement and pensions are viewed as cultural traits of our society. It also examines the form and value of pensions today, and looks ahead to what might happen in the future. The data used is almost all from the 1990s.

Author Biography

Eric Midwinter is Visiting Professor in Education at the University of Exeter and Chairman of the Community Education Development Centre. He was until recently Director of the Centre for Policy on Ageing, and holds an Honorary Doctorate of the Open University. Social historian and social policy analyst, he is the author of over thirty books, the latest in the social policy field being his well-received The Development of Social Welfare in Britain for the Open University Press.