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More employees set to work beyond retirement age

Increasing numbers of employees will be seeking to extend their careers beyond the state retirement age over the next 15 years, a new report has suggested.

In a survey of 1,000 workers aged between 50 and 64, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found that 38 per cent planned to continue working after they reach 65.

At the moment only 11 per cent of the workforce are working beyond state retirement age.

Among those who said they did not intend working past 65, almost a third (31 per cent) claimed they would reconsider their decisions if their bosses allowed them to work flexibly.

The CIPD said that this change of mind alone would result in a small majority of workers carrying on in employment after the age of 65.

Another fifth reported they would be tempted to work on if they were offered a deferred larger state pension.

The main reason for wishing to stay in work was the need to continue earning.

Charles Cotton, the CIPD’s reward adviser, said: “On one level the survey findings look very positive, in that they show a strong demand for working beyond retirement age that is as much down to financial as other reasons such as individuals wanting to use their skills and experience.

“However, it is clear that government policy could do more to encourage more older workers to stay on by extending the right to request flexible working beyond parents and carers and making pension arrangements more flexible. If the government fails to do this, its target of having a million older workers in work will become a mere aspiration.”