Retirement and Health Challenges among Retirees in Jos North and Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State, 2010-2016

Abstract

Retirement is the act of ending participation in the workforce of an organization due to old age or stipulated conditions of service. Its application and practices is relative and dynamic. It also varies among organizations and countries. This study attempted to look into retirement and the increasing challenges of ill-health conditions among retirees in Jos North Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State. The central objective of the study is to examine the influences of retirement on the ill health conditions among retired employees. The area of coverage is Jos North and Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State. The timeframe is from 2010 to 2017. The data of the study were generated from both primary and secondary sources. The secondary data comprises of array of published and unpublished materials such as textbooks, journals, newspapers, magazine, conferences and seminar papers, internet materials, statistical books of records and a lot of others. The primary sources of data comprise of research tools such as questionnaires, interviews and observation. The questionnaire intended to enhance precision while the interview enhanced diversity and in-depth-discussion. Certain research desires as well as qualities and background of respondents in this regard guided the selection of the respondents. Purposive sampling method enabled us to identify the actors, victims and those who had a reasonable understanding of the situation. The sampling took cognizance of the diversity of the state-Muslims, Christians, ethnic groups; gender and other social categories were adequately represented. In interpreting our data, the relationship between retirement and ill health was established at both theoretical and empirical levels. This was complemented by descriptive quantitative analysis. In doing this, information gathered were summarized and processed through Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). It was found out that difficulties associated with retirement such as delay in the payments of entitlement, adaptation to new life, expansion of responsibility in the outside world, idleness and a lot of others affect their state of health. It was concluded that there is a serious connection between retirement and prevalence of ill health among employees in Plateau State. Sets of recommendations such as prompt payment of entitlement, functional orientation, societal awareness and a lot of others were proffered.