Working pensioner numbers on rise

The number of people working beyond the state pension age has almost doubled over the past 18 years, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), rising from 753,000 in 1993 to 1.4 million in 2011.

The ONS said 39% of the 1.4 million older workers were men and 61% were women. But there is a skills divide between them. Two-thirds (67%) of these men were working in higher skilled jobs, such as marketing and sales directors or chief executives, while almost two-thirds of women worked in lower skilled jobs, such as cleaning.