Taking a slice of pension in your fifties can boost your health in the short-term, study finds
- UK, US, Singapore and South Korea have all relaxed rule that you have to wait until retirement age to access pension cash
- Research of over 7,000 people found 41% of 55-year-olds studied withdrew the equivalent of £13,567 on average from their pension savings accounts
- Study, published in journal Economic Policy, calculated that for each £5,717 withdrawn, health improved
Some feared that letting people in their 50s take part of their pension early would lead to disaster – with windfalls squandered on fast cars, fancy holidays and booze.
But researchers have found that, at least in the short term, taking a proportion of the money before retirement age may have health benefits.
The UK, the US, Singapore and South Korea have all relaxed the rule that you have to wait until retirement age to access pension cash, according to the study.
Researchers have found that, at least in the short term, taking a proportion of pension money before retirement age may have health benefits. (File photo)
Research of more than 7,000 people found that 41 per cent of the 55-year-olds studied withdrew the equivalent of £13,567 on average from their pension savings accounts.
Participants were then asked to self-report their health on a scale of one to five – with one being ‘poor’, and five being ‘excellent’.
The study, published in the journal Economic Policy, calculated that for each £5,717 withdrawn health improved by 0.9 points.
While the researchers from Korea University were unable to say exactly how this is boosting health, they suggested it may be a psychological effect of getting access to some of one’s hard-earned savings.