Retired go back to work - in record numbers

16/06/2008

The latest Labour Market figures from the Office for National Statistics show that there has been a staggering 8.6% increase in the employment of the over 65s, compared to just 1.2% for those aged 16-64. This brings the total number of pensioners now in work to over 1.3m.
 
Britain’s biggest pensioner organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), has warned the government that the large number of pensioners returning to work is further proof that older people are struggling to survive on their state pension.
 
Neil Duncan-Jordan, NPC spokesperson said: “The recent figures showing an extra 300,000 pensioners living in poverty are clearly linked to today’s report showing a massive increase in the number of older people going back to work. This is not a matter of personal choice – but economic necessity.

 

"Pensioners are effectively being forced to work till they drop because their state pension is totally inadequate. Offering pensioners the minimum wage to collect shopping trolleys in supermarket car parks is not a dignified way of treating our older generation. The government must realise that only a decent state pension can lift pensioners out of poverty and offer people real financial choice in retirement.”