Many people in their 70s and beyond are continuing to work, not out of choice but out of financial necessity, according to interviews with the BBC.
Mandy Kemp, 70, from Dover in Kent, has worked since she was 16 and still puts in three days a week as a practice manager for a financial adviser. "I only have a state pension, and it wouldn't pay the rent and my living costs," she said. "It's affordability more than anything else." She also supports her husband, who cannot work for health reasons.
Dr Andrea Barry from the Centre for Ageing Better noted that more people are working later in life, partly due to rising state pension ages and longer life expectancy. However, she highlighted that some have "no choice" but to work because of the cost of living, lack of savings, and increasing rents. Women are disproportionately affected, often having held part-time jobs without pensions or taken career breaks for caregiving.
Not everyone is working solely for money. Jackie Haynes, who turns 80 this year, works part-time as an activity coordinator at a care home. She said she loves the social connection: "More important for me is the friendship. It keeps me young." She has private pensions and owns her home, so she works for fulfillment rather than financial need.
Mike Sandford, 78, a mechanical design engineer from Redhill, said he is "extremely worried" about the mental impact of retiring. "I need something to stimulate the mind," he explained, adding that hobbies like wildlife photography and guitar would not fill his days. "I'd be climbing up the walls."
Barry added that while work can improve health and wellbeing for some, it can be harmful for others, calling many older workers "very precarious and vulnerable." Kemp echoed that sentiment: "Unless I got redundancy, I don't see how I'd survive for that long."