Research: The rise of the non-retiring

With older employees delaying their retirement in greater numbers, the impact on the workplace is likely to be huge. Wealth Wizards, together with the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr), carried out research to understand if UK employers fully anticipate these changes.

Key findings

• The majority of staff (86 per cent) would still prefer to retire at, or before the historic norm of 65. The problem is, only 37 per cent of employees believe this will be financially feasible for them.
• Data suggests continuing to employ an older worker instead of hiring a new one actually increases hourly wage costs by an average of £7.30. If UK workers delayed their retirement by one year, the cost to employers would be a massive £7.4 billion.
• Employers must support those who really do want to stay on, it’s equally the case they must also do more to help those who really want to retire when they want to.

The research questioned more than 500 employers about their attitudes towards their older staff working later and delaying their retirement. In addition to this, 1,000 UK employees, ranging in age from 18– 65+, were interviewed about their own desired retirement ages.