During a long career in the exhibition and conference industry, Joan Preston never imagined she would still be in employment at the age of 79. Her husband, Leon, 81, is an even less likely candidate after undergoing open-heart surgery.
But thanks to rocketing inflation, the couple both go out to work to top up their state pension, because they have already cut out all luxuries and say there are no more savings they could make.
Mrs Preston had intended to retire at the end of last year but changed her mind after being furloughed during Covid and watching the bills creep up. Now she works up to four days a week to top up her £89-a-week state pension.
“I didn’t retire because of the money. I was better off this time last year when I was furloughed. It’s a struggle now,” she says.
Have you been forced to come out of retirement? If so email jane.dalton@independent.co.uk
Mr Preston works one or two shifts a week at a cinema, earning the minimum wage to top up his £140 weekly state pension.
The couple cannot claim pension credit as they have too much money coming in, according to Mrs Preston – but they have already cut out luxuries, she says.
“I wouldn’t like to say how badly off we’d be if we didn’t have that money coming in. We’d definitely be hard up. No way could we make more savings.”
The effect of inflation is noticeable. Mrs Preston says they consider themselves lucky if they spend less than £100 on the weekly grocery shop, which is often £130 now, compared with £50 or £65 two years ago.
“It’s ridiculous,” she says. “I used to always have at least £1,000 in my bank account but now I have less than £300.”
Without their wages, they would have to watch how much they eat, she says.
“I now have no alternative but to carry on working and be one of Tony Blair’s statistics and ‘work till you drop’,” says Mrs Preston. Under Mr Blair, Labour phased out compulsory retirement at 65.
It’s something many older people are now grateful for, as they postpone their retirement or seek to return to work to make ends meet because they are finding their pensions simply will not stretch to cover spiralling household bills.
In what’s been dubbed the “great unretirement”, a record 173,000 more people aged 65 and over went back into work in the three months to June, compared with the previous quarter, according to official figures.
Data from the Office for National Statistics shows employment rates among over-65s rising from 5.3 per cent 20 years ago to 11.9 per cent in May this year.
I have had people tell me that when energy prices rise, they’re not using their heating system as they can’t afford it
More than 700,000 retired people could be forced to resume working because they cannot survive on their pensions, according to the latest research by the My Pension Expert consultancy.
Older people are being encouraged, scared or forced back into work by exponential rises in living costs. The energy price cap rose by 80 per cent in October, and the price of food is rising at its fastest rate since 2008.
The rate of UK inflation hit 10.1 per cent last month, the highest level in 40 years. The rise was largely down to food prices and staples.
The Resolution Foundation has warned Britain faces an “unprecedented two-decade-long wage depression”.
Britons are facing record energy bills
Volunteer Tony Moore is looking for shifts at 78
