United Kingdom: Survey Finds Over-50s Looking to Keep Working in Flexible Retirement

According to a survey conducted by Saga, around 24% of people in the United Kingdom over 50 have rejected full retirement in favor of continuing with some paid work, as well as carrying out voluntary work and having more leisure time. In addition, according to the Saga Manifesto, which advocates the abolition of the default retirement age, almost 97% of over-50s reject the idea of working doggedly until state retirement age and greatly prefer to scale back working hours before this time.

Saga predicts that there will be a 50% increase in the number of people who take this approach to retirement during the next 10 years, with around three million over-50s combining work and volunteering by 2019. People will typically start scaling back their working hours when they are 57, with the average person carrying out 27 hours a week of paid work and eight hours of voluntary work.

Sources: Saga Media Release (January 11, 2010); UK Press Association "Over 50s taking gradual retirement" (January 7, 2010)