The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development is calling on the government to scrap the retirement age at 65 and encourage more flexible working for older workers.

The Department for Work and Pensions published a report yesterday challenging the traditional approach to retirement, confirming recent CIPD research which show employees wish to work past retirement age for personal and financial reasons.
 
The CIPD report, Future Demand for Working Among Older Workers, surveyed 1,000 workers aged between 50 and 64 years and found that almost two fifths (38%) of individuals plan to carry on working beyond 65. Currently, only 11% of the workforce work beyond state pension age.

Among those who said they did not plan to work past 65, 31% would change their mind if their employer allowed them to work flexibly; highlighting the unsuitability of a one-size fits all default retirement age.

Individuals in both the DWP and CIPD studies cited social reasons for working beyond state retirement (DWP, 67%; CIPD, 38%) as well as for the personal challenge it represented (DWP, 53%; CIPD, 52%). 

Charles Cotton, reward adviser at the CIPD says: “It is clear that Government policy could do more to encourage more older workers to stay on by extending the right to request flexible working beyond parents and carers and making pension arrangements more flexible.  It should also remove the default retirement age of 65, rather than wait until the 2011 policy review, as this is proving to be a bureaucratic barrier for HR professionals and a barrier for many older workers who wish to work beyond retirement age.”