New research(1) from finance specialists Pay4Later reveals that rather than retire nearly 92,000 people aged 65 and over plan to retrain over the next three years so they can start a new job. In addition to this, some 917,000 people aged 55 – 64 are also looking to learn new skills to extend their working life.
Government figures show there are around 1.1 million people aged 65 and over in work compared to 874,000 in 2011 and Pay4Later believes that more people are being forced to continue working because they cannot afford to retire. Similarly, many people in their 50s and early 60s who are made redundant retrain because they need to keep working.
Pay4Later’s education and training finance platform enables employers, education and training organisations to offer funding to students, professionals and parents to finance private education and career development courses.
Scott Law, CEO of Pay4Later said: “Since 2011 when the default retirement age forcing people to stop work was abolished, the number of people aged 65 and over who have opted to stay in work has increased by nearly quarter of a million(2).
“Many of them want to continue working because they enjoy it, but others are forced to for financial reasons. However, if they want to continue working, some will need to change jobs and retrain to learn new skills.”
1Online survey conducted by Consumer Intelligence of 1,033 adults aged 18+ between 30th and 31st October 2014. UK adult population aged 18+ is 47.358 million
2 Gov.uk press release: Older People’s Day: 1 million in work over 65 (1 October 2014)