In 1881, Otto von Bismarck presented a novel thought to the Reichstag: government support for older citizens who could no longer earn money. In just one speech he invented the concept of retirement.
The idea was a radical one in an era when people were expected to work (or be supported by their families) for as long as they were alive. It would take nearly 30 years for the state pension to come to Britain – 5 shillings a week from 1908 for people over 70 who had previously earned less than £21 a year.
These early schemes for financial support in old age were usually pegged to the age we were expected to die. And yet over the last century life expectancy has shot up from 52 to 81 while retirement age has dropped – and as a result many people spend decades, rather than years, no longer working (women for an average of 20 years and men for 15).
Life expectancy in the United Kingdom from 1765 to 2020The question now is whether that’s the right solution for our mental and even our physical health.
“It’s important to distinguish between work that implies you go to an office and manual labour,” says Ralph Abraham, 78, who works full-time as an endocrinologist for London Medical.
“Most of us are less physically strong than we were in our 20s and 30s – but when you have a job that feels more like a passion than work, there is no need to stop doing it just because you reach an arbitrary age.”
For Abraham, a number of professional benefits have come with working at nearly 80. “I’m very patient these days,” he says, “and I really value spending time with the people who come to see me. I’m enjoying it more because my patients have been with me for 30 to 40 years, which means I’m in a unique position of being able to measure a disease over time. If you see a doctor of 35 they won’t be able to do that.”
He notes that not everyone in the medical profession will keep working as long as he has – surgeons often retire in their mid-60s because their hands are no longer as steady as they once were.
Equally, he says that if he worked alone analysing medical data rather than in a hands-on job, which requires a lot of interaction with patients, he would be less inclined to continue past the point where he could claim a pension.
“For now, I’m useful and I enjoy it and I’m seeing great patients who give me so much stimulation and energy,” he says. “I’ll stop working if I can’t hear or am making mistakes – and I make sure I get regular appraisals to ensure I’m functioning properly. At the moment, I don’t feel tired in the evenings, but at some point, I’ll notice it and trim my workload.
“Although I’ve always maintained that if you’re interested in life, you find the energy – often people who are tired have lost interest.”
A 2021 study by BMC Public Health appears to back this up, with participants who worked either full-time or part-time work scoring higher in mental health (as measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale) than those who had retired.
In terms of physical robustness, the same study showed that women who continued working past 65 had a lower likelihood of requiring long-term care and a reduced risk of decline in their ability to complete daily activities – this “working boost” extended to both sexes for people whose jobs were classed as “rewarding”.
Even one year can make a difference: a Harvard Business Review Study found that people who retired at 66, rather than at 65 or younger, lived 11 per cent longer.
Tom, 72, started his career as a journalist and author before retraining as an architect and believes working in a job he loves has brought him huge mental and physical benefits in later life.
“In terms of my capacity, nothing has changed at all since he was young,” he says. “When I was a teenager, I remember reading about a philosopher who died when he was 92 expounding some great idea.
“I thought ‘That’s brilliant, why would you want to stop?’. The past 10 minutes of your life are as precious as the first 10 minutes so why spend them watching television?”
He has chosen not to use his full name in this article – not because he is ashamed of his age but because he has noticed some people take him less seriously once they realise which decade, he is in.
“Age is in the eye of the beholder,” he says. “Of course, it’s physical in some ways, but it’s also very much something that is people’s perception of you – I don’t hide my age ever but I also don’t broadcast it, and I’ve realised people passively think I’m in my 60s.
“Once I say I’m older than that, it becomes a label that’s about them rather than me.”
He can feel this discrimination starting to change – but slowly. “It’s now not at all uncommon to work until you’re 75 or older, and I firmly believe we need people my age who maybe bring a different perspective to the market.
“And the idea that we’re taking jobs from younger people is nonsense – it’s what they used to say about women and it’s not how the world works.”
Ageism aside, Tom loves his job and is in no rush to give it up. Still, he has implemented some changes: last year he moved down to the coast and he has ring-fenced time in the morning and late afternoons when he’s not working so he can read, write and exercise.
In terms of his peers, Tom’s group of university friends is divided 50:50 between those who work and those who are retired. “About half felt that they’d done their bit and as they weren’t in a profession that motivated them, decided they deserved to spend their life on the golf course. I understand it – but I don’t envy them.”
For Sylvia Paskin, who is 79 and lives in Hackney, teaching creative writing and working as an editor has made her the norm, rather than an outlier, in her peer group.
“All my friends are either appearing on television ads or running theatre groups or writing,” she says. “I think it’s a factor of this generation or maybe it’s just London. But 99 per cent of my older friends are doing something professional.”
The bonus of working well into her retirement age is that many of the people she spends time with aren’t from her generation. “Through work I meet so many youngsters – I just went to Madrid with two men in their 30s and one in his 50s and we had a lovely time,” she says.
“Working keeps me in contact with some really delightful people – they bring so much to my life and keep my brain active.”
Harvard studies concur – some of the health benefits we accrue by working come from the movement that is usually required to get oneself to an office, while any cognitive tasks keep the brain active. But by far the most important health-related factor was the benfit afforded by increased social connections and engagement.
Money of course is also a factor – although Paskin says the amount, she earns is not enough to send her on holidays to Antigua – but all three emphasise that it is the joy and stimulation that they receive from their careers, rather than the financial incentives, that keep them in the workforce.
And in their own way, they’re helping younger people too. Dominique Afacan had a dread of getting older and becoming irrelevant and so decided to write a book, Bolder, on people over 70 with stimulating careers.
“I was a few years off turning 40 and my upcoming birthday felt problematic,” she says. “All the products in my make-up bag were stamped with ‘anti-ageing’, none of my colleagues were over 50, and birthday cards were about being over the hill. Ageing is bleak, the message was, so fight it.”
Instead of worrying, she spoke to people decades ahead of her – industry titans like Esther Rantzen, 83, Michael Eavis, the 88-year-old founder of Glastonbury, and fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, 83, as well as hundreds of other less famous names.
“Researching Bolder was incredible – one day we’d be getting a swimming lesson from an 87-year-old instructor in the South of France, the next we’d be meeting octogenarian skydivers on a windswept beach in LA,” she says. “We’ve had a living room concerto with a 78-year-old classical pianist and an impromptu personal training session from a 75-year-old kung fu master.”
Each interview left her on a high and made her see how much potential there was in her own future. “I started to realise that the energy we associate with youth is often there because young people are more likely to be exploring the world, taking on big jobs and making new contacts,” says Afacan.
“But there’s nothing stopping you from recreating this at any point in your life.”
