File photo: Patricia Flannery had planned to retire at 55 but was forced to work even longer due to the changes to the pension age
Ms Flannery says the family were impacted financially in a number of ways. She was working as head of English at a school, but due to Government cuts, management had to downsize and restructure the school which meant everyone in middle management had to take a significant wage cut. “It felt like we had struggled through our children’s lives and worked full-time all our lives and then when we expected to take our foot off the pedal at 55, we couldn’t and had to keep working harder to keep everything going.felt like the final nail in the coffin and it was definitely a major contributory factor to my nervous breakdown.
“When I had my nervous breakdown, I didn’t want to get out of bed or open my eyes or get showered. I felt paralysed and was nasty to people as I felt like a monster inside.” “I ended up working until 67 even though I finally got my state pension at 66 as the damage had already been done and it wasn’t enough to live on.