Short on benefits

Now that the retirement age of 65 has been banished, is your place of business going to extend benefits for that demographic? A Rapid Response survey by Hewitt Associates shows it isn’t promising. Only 2% of firms polled already offer some long-term disability benefits to employees after age 65, and 81% said they are not planning to add post-65 long-term disability benefits.

The survey pointed out that employers may need to encourage employees to keep working as long as they can effectively contribute to an organization, given the upcoming retirement of baby boomers and the resulting talent crunch faced by many companies. Respondents were asked: in view of the fact that your employee population may be increasingly comprised of employees 65 and older, has your organization extended the following benefits in the chart below for active employees aged 65 years and older? Here’s what they had to say: