Several of them have said they would like to quit working and make their jobs available to a younger person.
The biggest reason all of them give for not retiring is their inability to acquire affordable health insurance or the fear that as soon as they retire their employer will change or terminate their current retiree health care plan.
From what I understand of the ACA, qualification for subsidies is based on income (i.e. they check the IRS database to see how much you made). Does anyone know if that is the most recent tax year or several years? Does anyone know if there is a provision if you are planning on retiring or even having a significant reduction in income in the future year you can use an estimated income for purposes of determining subsidy eligibility?
Even with the ACA these friends of mine likely made too much money last year and this year. Even having to purchase a plan under Obamacare for the first year (until their previous year income is recognized as being significantly lower) may make the insurance unaffordable. If you go from making say $50K a year to eking out $23K a year for a husband and wife, any premium above a few hundred dollars a month would likely be deemed unaffordable.
The other reason they don't retire is they say they may as well continue to work if they have to pay income taxes. I have never understood why we treat SS income as taxable income. I realize that many seniors that are living on SS alone or SS with maybe a small private pension end up paying no income taxes. But even for someone with some investment income, a reasonable but still not lavish private pension, why is SS subject to income tax? I could see setting an income threshold that if your gross income is above a certain point then all income is subject to relevant taxation. But if your total gross is below that point, that portion of your income that is from SS should be tax exempt.
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