Record numbers put off retirement

MORE than a million people are working beyond retirement age because of the worsening pensions crisis, it emerged yesterday. Record numbers are being forced to carry on into their seventies and eighties, it is feared.

The prospect of working until you drop is now a reality for those facing poverty because of inadequate savings and pensions.

Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that 1,011,000 people over the current State pension age of 65 for men and 60 for women are still employed. That is almost a third up on ten years ago, with most of the increase coming since 1997, when Labour came to power. The statistics mean almost one in ten people aged 65 to 69 is working and a third of those aged 60 to 64.

Women are nearly twice as likely as men to work past retirement age, mainly because they do not have a private pension or full entitlement to a State pension.

A report from the Third Age Employment Network campaign group estimates three in five pensioners work because of financial hardship.

Chief executive Patrick Grattan said: 'Some may want to carry on, but there is a darker side. In many cases, work is not a question of choice - but force of circumstances, reflecting inadequate savings and pension provision.

We could end up with a workforce where there are lots of older people who don't want to be there, doing jobs they don't want to do for employers who don't really want them anyway.'

One exception is former electrician Dick Stanners, 83, of Crawley, West Sussex. After retiring at 65, he worked in security and theatre maintenance, and is now employed by Tesco.

The retirement crisis is blamed on longer life expectancy, falling share prices, taxes and the plummeting value of the State pension. There is a multi-billion-pound shortfall between what Britons are saving and what they should be putting aside.

Meanwhile, many firms are closing final salary pensions and switching employees to riskier equity-based schemes.

Critics say Chancellor Gordon Brown's £5bn a year tax grab on private pensions has made the situation worse. To combat the problems, Labour has considered raising the retirement age to 70.

Tory pensions spokesman David Willetts said: 'The crisis threatens the financial security of millions facing retirement, the consequences of which we will be suffering for years to come.'