As for your question: in Hungary, eight years ago, retirement age was slated to rise to 62 years for both sexes (from 55 and 60), with effect for everyone by 2009 (my parents just fall short of the transition shorter retirement ages).

Just for the heck of it, similarly, in Estonia retirement age is raised to 63 years for both sexes (from 58.5 and already 63) by 2016.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

People with private pensions(the pension company is different for every sector)- this is about everyone- could stop working at 56 in some cases, though this is now being debated in the collective trade agreements. Almost every higher educated person can retire at about 60 without problem, but they get less pension than when they retire at 65 of course.

When you're 65, you're automatically discharged by the way. This way young people are protected from overachieving seniors :)

I'm not sure about low-paying jobs, but I know that people with intensive jobs, like firemen, are allowed to retire young (this makes sense, since firemen generally only live to see their 62nd year).

This is the dutch situation, in a nutshell. I should add that all the costs are covered, companies cannot raid their pension funds, and there is no crisis looming like in other EU countries.