WORK
Record numbers of over-65s are in the workplace – and more than 35,000 over-80s, too. Why do they do it? It’s not all about the money, as we discover…
Each morning at 8.45, Derek Price, 93, leaves his house near Bath, and walks the 500 yards to his rubber moulding and sports ball factory for a full day’s work. With him are pages of notes he has written the night before. ‘There’s 101 things,’ says Derek. ‘We’ve just moved production to a new site, so I’m working on layout and size of sheds. I’m rebuilding and engineering a tennis ball steaming machine. I’m looking at ways to save oil consumption. I want to improve our website...’
He’s usually home by 7pm. ‘I’ll have a large G&T, fall asleep, then my wife wakes me and we have dinner.’ At weekends, Derek’s working hours are slightly reduced – he clocks off at 2 or 3pm.
Derek had once planned to retire at 50. He even bought a field as he hoped to ride horses in his retirement. He still has the field, but no horses in it. Somehow, there was just never a good time. His business, Price of Bath, was founded by his father and Derek began working in it aged ten. Competition from the Far East has demanded constant reinvention to stay afloat – and to keep on his staff, whom he sees as ‘extended family’. Many have been with him all their working life. His PA stayed until she was 93.
As the years have passed, Derek has realised that retirement is simply not for him. ‘I’ve seen friends retire,’ he says. ‘They spend an hour drinking a cup of tea, fritter the day away and fall asleep. Some are bored out of their minds. I haven’t been bored since I left school.’
A growing number of ‘retirement rebels’ must feel the same. Research by the Centre for Ageing Better based on government figures has found the employment rate of those aged 65-plus has doubled in the past 25 years, with more than one in nine of us now working beyond our 65th birthday. Analysis by Rest Less, the digital community and job site for the over-50s, shows that the number of men and women over 70 working has increased by 58% and 66% respectively over the past decade. There are now 35,488 people working beyond 80.
Dr Karen Hancock, research and policy officer for work at the Centre for Ageing Better, who is 68 herself, points to many reasons. Inadequate pensions and rising living costs play a part, but the growing army of people who remain economically active well into the later decades are, she says, usually there by choice. ‘The most important factor, and I can’t stress this enough, is purpose in life.’ After accepting voluntary redundancy in her former job, Dr Hancock didn’t fancy early retirement, so she studied for a PhD on what makes life worthwhile in older age, which led to her current job.
‘Plenty of research shows that having a purpose in life i
