Elderly 'should work past retirement'
Friday, 05 Sep 2008 08:47
Blunkett: Elderly should work past retirement
Elderly people should work past their retirement until they are physically incapable, former work and pensions secretary David Blunkett has said.
Delivering a lecture for charity Counsel and Care, Mr Blunkett argued government does not have sole responsibility for elderly care, and would increasingly struggle to provide it as Britain's elderly population continued to rise.
This work could constitute paid work or volunteering, as a method of maintaining elderly people's role in the community.
"My presumption is this," Mr Blunkett said.
"That all of us, every one of us who is capable of doing so, should aspire to continue with some meaningful activity to the point of our incapacity overtaking us.
"Preferably work, of course, increasingly part-time, flexible and in many cases, very different to the work undertaken in our earlier lives."
A European Commission report published last month found the UK would become Europe's most populous state by 2060, although the ratio of old to young would move downwards due to combination of births and young foreign workers.