Income Trajectories and Precarity in Later life

This paper captures trajectories of income in later-life and considers how membership of particular income trajectories is patterned by social class, sex and precarity in housing, pensions relationships, care and retirement. Using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2002-19) for over-50s, latent class analysis identifies 10 income trajectory clusters and on the basis of comparable income levels from around statutory retirement age (65), we further condense these clusters to four income trajectory groups of ‘Luxury’ (at or above £500 per week in retirement; 14%), Comfortable (£300-£500 per week in retirement; 28%), ‘Boom-to-Bust’ (increasing to £600 per week at age 70, falling to around £200 over age 80; 4%) and ‘Always Poor’ (typically less than £300 per week in retirement; 54%). Experiences of precarity and lower socio-economic position are independently associated with greater relative risks of being ‘Always Poor’ and lower relative risks of being in the ‘Luxury’ group, compared to the ‘Comfortable’ group. For example, those who always rent a house are 2 times ( p