This report brings together the findings from 12 projects in the "Transitions after 50" series, and explores people's experiences, decisions and constraints as they pass from active labour market participation in their middle years towards a new identity in later life.

This report brings together the findings from 12 projects in the "Transitions after 50" series, and explores people's experiences, decisions and constraints as they pass from active labour market participation in their middle years towards a new identity in later life. The report draws on that new pool of evidence to explore what we now know about people's lives during this period of transition. It argues that a debate revolving around whether people should be retiring earlier or later is misplaced. People in their fifties vary hugely in terms of their work situation, their expectations, their attitudes to work, their financial position, their health and their personal lives. Many difficulties that they encounter stem not from an inability to face up to the trade-off between income and leisure in later life but from a lack of choice and control.