British workers are increasingly likely to work into their 70s, according to a research that found the cost of living crisis has left older people with little choice but to stay in employment. There were 446,601 people above the age of 70 still in work in 2022, a rise of 61% compared with 277,926 in 2012, said Rest Less, an online community for the over-50s that offers advice to older workers.

   While most of the over-70s workforce is male, the rise has been more significant among women, most likely in response to the gradual equalisation of pension ages between 2010 and 2020. Women were previously able to retire five years earlier. The number of women working beyond the age of 70 is up 66% since 2012, compared with an increase of 58% for men.

    Stuart Lewis, the chief executive of Rest Less, drew a comparison between older workers and King Charles, but acknowledged that most continue working “for very different reasons” to the hereditary monarch. “At the age of 74, King Charles is a fantastic example of someone who both enjoys, and benefits from, continuing to work post-state pension1 age,” said Lewis. “Our latest analysis shows that there are far more over-70s in the workplace today than a decade ago. Until Covid hit and life expectancy dropped for the first time in a decade, there were more people reaching their state pension age than ever before, which meant there were more experienced people in the workplace than ever before too.”

    Lewis said many of those reaching the theoretical age of retirement were staying in the workplace for lack of any other option. “Like King Charles, many of these people will have no choice but to work, although for very different reasons to the king. We see many older workers today who are struggling to survive amidst the cost of living crisis, with inadequate retirement savings meaning they must work in order to survive financially.” The state pension age in the United Kingdom (UK) is 66 for men and women but is due to start rising from 2026.

(Rob Davies. www.theguardian.com, 30.04.2023. Adaptado.)

1      state pension: a regular payment from the government to someone who does not work anymore.