Encouraging labour market activity among 60-64 year olds

This research aimed to explore in some detail the attitudes and behaviours of people aged 50-64 towards work and retirement. The principal objective was to better understand what incentives, support or policy development might encourage people, especially those aged 60-64, to extend their working lives by staying in work longer or by returning to work if they had left the labour force.The research sought to answer the following questions:

1 What barriers to working exist for 60-64 year olds; and how personal, structural and cultural factors interact to depress their labour market participation?2 What incentives would particularly help working among this age group?3 How the labour market opportunities of State Pension Age (SPA) equalisation can be maximised.4 How barriers to working might be removed.In common with other studies of work and retirement, we found a wide diversity of attitudes, circumstances, behaviours and intentions. Overall there was only limited appetite for extending working lives. A common feature among those who were working after retirement, or thosewho were considering extending their working lives, was a preference for flexible working. Part-time or casual work were the most common forms of flexible workingin practice. The importance of flexible work opportunities for retaining older workers in the labour market was reinforced.