The new report from L&G and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) found that 47 percent of all over 50s are predicted to be part of the UK’s workforce. In 2020, the number of people over the age 50 in work rose to 42 percent, a sharp rise from the 31 percent increase in 1992.
Comparatively, the number of people remaining in work under this age has remained relatively steady over the 30 years.
As a result of this, there has been a significant increase in the narrowing of the gap in employment rates between the under and over 50s from 42 percentage points in 1992 to 35 percentage points in 2020.
This is expected to continue to drop to 29 percent by 2030, according to L&G and Cebr’s report.
Those in the 60s were the primary age demographic to continue to work, with their employment rate jumping “twofold” over the last two decades.
Currently, the state pension age stands at 66 years old and is available to men born on or after April 6, 1951 and any woman born on or after April 6, 1953.
Claimants usually need at least ten qualifying years on their National Insurance record to get any state pension, however these ten years do not need to happen consecutively.
As of today, the full new state pension is £179.60 per week. A higher amount can be given to claimants if they have over a certain amount of additional state pension or have delayed getting it.
In April 2021, claimants received a 2.5 percent increase in their payments of the new state pension.
Despite the pension age being 66 (with further rises in the pipeline), L&G found that many Britons are deciding to work long past the state retirement age.
Some eight percent of people over 66 currently are in work, and those in work put in an average of 26 hours a week.
This is expected to jump to a record 11 percent by 2030, which comes to an estimated 948,000 people.
On top of this, the number of people who are past the state pension age is expected to continue to rise if further changes to the age threshold are implemented.