More women expect to carry on working

Twice as many women as men expect to have to continue working past the state pension age.

One in five aged over 50 think they will remain employed once they can claim their state pension, with the average person expecting to continue working for just over six years, according to life insurer Liverpool Victoria.

But a quarter of these think they will work for between five and 10 years beyond the state pension age, while a fifth see themselves working on until well into their 70s or even 80s.

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The study also found that women are twice as likely to expect to continue working when they can draw their state pension as men, at 66 per cent, compared with 34 per cent of men.

The high level of women who plan to work on is likely to in part reflect the fact that the age at which women can claim their state pension is currently lower than it is for men, although it is gradually being raised from 60 to 65 to make it the same for both sexes.

But high levels of women are also likely to need to stay in work for financial reasons, as women typically have lower pensions than men, due to a combination of their lower pay and the fact that they are more likely to take career breaks to look after children and elderly relatives.

Around 60 per cent of both men and women who planned to work beyond the state pension age said it was because they could not afford to retire earlier, with a further 10 per cent saying they were delaying giving up work in the hope that the value of their pension would increase.