One million workers delay retirement

While business leaders continue to call for the state pension age (SPA) to be raised, over a million workers in the UK are already delaying their retirement - often because they cannot afford not to.

The Office for National Statistics reports that 1,011,000 people over the SPA were in paid employment between April and June - a 30% increase over the past decade.

The comfortably off tend to retire before the SPA - just 36% of people who own their home outright are still working into their late 50s, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) - but those in financial hardship are more likely to work beyond it. When pensioner workers do eventually retire, on average the state pension makes up 61% of their income.

Research by campaign group the Third Age Employment Network (TAEN) indicates that 60% of people who work beyond the SPA do so out of economic necessity rather than choice.

Women in particular can have problems saving enough for retirement - the government's Women and Equality Unit says a six-year career break for children reduces a pension pot by 31%, for example. Plans to raise the women's SPA will not start to take effect until 2010, but DWP figures show that this is already happening in practice; 28% of women now work beyond the age of 60. Overall, 32% of 60- to 64-year-olds, along with 10% of people aged 65-69, are in paid employment.

"In many cases, work is not a question of choice but force of circumstances, reflecting inadequate savings and pension provision - both private and state," said TAEN chief executive Patrick Grattan. "Most pensioner workers are paid less and in lower-quality jobs than younger colleagues."