More Brits Over 70 Continue to Work Amid Cost-of-Living Crisis

Inflation in Britain remained in double-digits in March as UK households continue to grapple with growing food and energy bills.

More people in the UK are postponing retirement and continuing to work beyond the age of 70, a new study has revealed.

The survey conducted by Rest Less, a digital community that offers advice to older workers, indicated that the number of individuals aged over 70 who are still working soared by 61% last year compared to a decade ago.

According to the research, there were 446,601 people above the age of 70 still in work in 2022, in comparison with 277,926 in 2012.

The study also found that with most of the over-70s workforce being male, the increase has been steeper among women, not least due to the gradual equalization of pension ages in Britain between 2010 and 2020.

Women were previously able to retire five years earlier at the age of 61. The current retirement age for men and women in the UK is 66 but it will gradually increase to 68 by 2046.

Rest Less Chief Executive Stuart Lewis summarized the results by saying that "until COVID hit and life expectancy dropped for the first time in a decade, there were more people reaching their state pension age than ever before, which meant there were more experienced people in the workplace than ever before too."

He added that many of those reaching the theoretical age of retirement were staying in the workplace because they had no other lack options, especially given the ongoing cost-of-living crisis in the country.

"We see many older workers today who are struggling to make ends meet amidst the cost-of-living crisis, with inadequate retirement savings meaning they must work in order to survive financially," Lewis pointed out.

The cost-of-living crisis in the UK began in 2021 when prices for many basic necessities began to rise faster than household incomes, causing real incomes to plummet. Apart from soaring inflation, the COVID-19 pandemic and the West's sanctions imposed on Russia over its special military operation in Ukraine were among the major factors behind the worsening economic conditions.

The annual rate of inflation in Britain reached 11.1% in October 2022, a 41-year high, before dropping in subsequent months. In March, the figure stood at 10.1%, the seventh successive month of double-digit inflation, according to official statistics.