Work and retirement

This chapter provides a complete cross-sectional description of the labour market activity and retirement status of the older population in England. The possibility of longer working lives in the future has been a topic of considerable interest in the recent policy debate on the adequacy of retirement saving. Longer working lives for future cohorts would imply both more years of pension contributions and accumulation of private savings and fewer years for which those accumulated pension funds and savings would need to finance consumption, thus mitigating problems with the provision of resources for retirement. But the issue of whether future cohorts will have the opportunity to work longer and the ability to work longer and then whether they will choose to work longer raises a host of complex questions about retirement possibilities and retirement choices. Important dimensions of this problem will include: health, physical functioning and the nature of work; the interaction of choices between individuals within couples; the financial incentives implicit in private pension arrangements, state pensions and state benefits; the adequacy or otherwise of wealth, which could be used to finance an extended retirement; social participation and leisure possibilities.