Ed i to r ia l

Changes in the ageing process: a longer working lifefor some quality of life?

It is intriguing to imagine walking down the main

street of our towns and cities in 20, 30 or 50 years

and contemplate the changes that one might see.

One of the obvious facts would be that there will be

fewer younger people and a greater proportion of

older people – the ‘grey’ revolution. The group,

Continuous Mortality Investigation (CMI) has

reported, what many of us have been aware of for

some time, that birth rates are falling, but we are

living longer due to improved diet, higher incomes,

medical advances and better standards of educa-

tion. This has allowed people to gauge better what

diet and behaviour is good for their health. How-

ever, this poses significant challenges for retire-

ment provision and the role of the older person in

the workplace. Ultimately, this will mean many

people spending more time at work. The concept

put forward by the Pension Policy Institute in the

UK of individuals being able to spend the first

20 years of their lives in education leading to a

work and income generation period followed by 30

or 40 years of retirement enjoying life is potentially

unsustainable in future. In many countries, there

are simply fewer younger people to generate the

income to pay for the pensions of the retired and

ways have to be found to extend people’s working

lives. This increase in life expectancy seems to have

come as a surprise to the politicians in the devel-

oped industrialised countries but the warning signs

have been there for some time and they have been

ignored. In 1997, research by CMI suggested that

by 2005 a 65-year-old man could expect to live, on

average, until he was 83 years and 1 month.

However, by October 2005, lifespan estimates were

raised and the same man could now live rather

longer by an additional three and a half years, until

he was 86 years and 7 months. It is also suggested

that a man who is 65 in 2015 could live until he is

nearly 90. As one might expect, the situation for

women forms a similar pattern but occurs much

earlier, with life expectancy reaching 90 years

imminently. However, it is becoming clearer that

the future gap between men and women will

narrow significantly in the coming decades.

Worldwide, the proportion of older people in popu-

lations is increasing such that by 2050, levels will

be 30% in UK, China and Australia, 33% and 35%,

respectively, in France and Germany, and over

40% in South Korea, Japan and Italy. Countries

such as Australia and Indonesia are trying to

encourage or compel people to save more for

retirement and/or, in the case of European coun-

tries, accept a later retirement age. The latter sug-

gestion is meeting considerable resistance from

many who had expected to retire at a particular

time, but are now being told that is not possible or

that they will have to accept a lower pension.

Unfortunately, there are mixed messages eman-

ating from governments who want people to work

longer in commercial sectors, but appear to allow

those in the public sectors to retire at 60. A

spokesman for the Third Age Employment Network

stated that ‘in effect, this means that we have a

two-tier workforce, with people in the private

sector with unsound pensions financing gilt-edge

public sector pensions’. The problems are set to run

and run.

So one could also ask the question – ‘Will we be

still working at 70?’ A recent poll suggested that

most people, if given a choice and could afford to

do so, would retire early, with 58 being named as

the optimum age. Between 1973 and 1995

employment rates in the UK amongst men over 50

fell from 89% to 62% as the type of work changed

from the more traditional industries to newer

financial/computer-based services. Unfortunately,

there seems to have been little change in the last

10 years as many employers see older people as

being less productive, ill more often and difficult to

be trained to carry out new tasks. New laws are

being brought in which will make it illegal to dis-

criminate against someone on the grounds of age

but unfortunately employers will still be allowed to

dictate that their employees retire by the age of 65.

It has been mooted that in some countries the state

pension age will be raised to 70 by 2030. On

average, British workers retire at 62.1 – men at 63.1

and women at 61. However, there is an even more

fundamental change underway. The supply of

younger workers in the employment pool is

shrinking and therefore older people may find

themselves in a position to change the terms and

conditions of employment. Professor Stephen

McNair, Director of the Centre for Research into

the Older Workforce (Crow), has found that people

in general feel positive about work and want to go

on working, but they do not necessarily want to

work full-time. He suggests that if employers design

� 2006 The Author

Journal compilation � 2006 The Gerodontology Association and Blackwell Munksgaard Ltd, Gerodontology 2006; 23: 193–194

work in appropriate ways, with flexible and part-

time options, more older people can be kept

working. ‘Crow’ has suggested that the attributes of

older workers include being conscientious, are

effective at their job, think before acting, show

loyalty, have interpersonal skills, exhibit less

absenteeism and are good at team working. A

senior researcher at the University of Cambridge’s

Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Ageing (Cir-

ca) states that there is a lack of labour and there are

difficulties with recruitment. Early retirement has

been used in the past as a means of downsizing, so

there has not been a culture of employing older

workers. Every time a senior worker retires, a

whole lifetime of experience and knowledge is lost,

but even if many companies realise that they need

to retain these key people, it still seems to be a big

leap to actually do something about it. One of the

biggest challenges is to teach young managers how

to manage people who are older than them and

who often have a great deal of experience which

could be highly beneficial to a company or work-

place. The charity Age Concern fears that there will

be a rise in older workers being sacked before the

new laws come into force and a law firm published

a survey suggesting that seven out of ten employers

saw no benefit in employing older workers. How-

ever, more optimistically a Manpower Survey

found that more than half of 700 people polled

thought that they would probably now apply for

jobs they might have ruled themselves out of in the

past, simply because of their age.

A recent survey in the UK found that, in fact,

nearly three million pensioners were returning to

work because they could not afford retirement,

with nearly two million in financial difficulty. The

average pensioner has seen their income drop by

more than £4000 when they retire, equivalent to

just over 22% and feel the need to boost their

income in some way. Surprise was expressed by

many pensioners themselves, when these figures

were revealed as they felt in their experience the

drop was more of the order of £10 000. It would

appear that the most common way is to return to

work and on average a quarter take this route.

However the spread is not even, as pensioners in

Scotland seem to be more organised in their

financial planning as only one in six rejoins the

workforce – canny Scots? It is interesting to note

that Help the Aged had found that returning to

work wasn’t just an economic necessity with

everyone, but some continued working as they

were bored or simply missed having a sense of

purpose.

To quote one such person: ‘I liked being retired,

the reason being I work three shifts a week for an

agency, which makes the situation very flexible, I

work the days that suit me. The choice is great!’

Unfortunately, a proportion do not feel this way

and expect – no, demand the right to rest and relax,

‘paid for with my money that I have paid in’.

Fortunately this latter view is not that of the

majority, but ways will have to be found to meet

the needs of both groups and perhaps in their dif-

ferent ways, society at large has something to learn

from them both.

I fought with none for none was worth my strife

Nature I loved and next to nature art

I warmed my hands before the fire of life

It sinks and I am ready to depart

Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864)

James P. Newton

Editor

� 2006 The Author

194 Journal compilation � 2006 The Gerodontology Association and Blackwell Munksgaard Ltd, Gerodontology 2006; 23: 193–194

194 Editorial