Bored and restless, the retired men who are going back to work

GROWING numbers of men are coming out of retirement and going back into work because they are bored.

Nearly one in six have returned to the labour force – compared with fewer than one in ten women. Most men said their main motive was to beat boredom. Women were mainly driven back to work by financial problems.

The Centre for the Modern Family study also found that men were twice as likely to cite a job as a way to improve their relationship by spending time away from their partner.

A third of over-55s say they plan to continue working after retirement age. Younger employees were resentful of older people staying in work, with more than half of 18- to 24-yearolds saying it reduced the number of jobs available to them. A spokesman for Scottish Widows, which backed the report, said: ‘It is natural that there will be concerns from all sides as the make-up of our workforce shifts to make space for older workers to stay in employment.

‘But accommodating these employees does not have to mean others lose out.

‘In the coming years, it will be increasingly important for employers to find ways to get the most from all their staff – whether that’s through knowledge exchanges or changes to the ways in which jobs are defined to capitalise on the strengths of all employees.’

More than half of those choosing to stay in work said they did not feel old enough to retire. Around a quarter said they wanted to keep working because they enjoyed their job, although men were more than twice as likely as women to cite this as a reason. A fifth of those surveyed said they needed to work to support their family. Thirteen per cent still had a mortgage or debt to pay off.

Retirees’ wider families could be unsupportive of the idea of them working longer, the report found, with a fifth saying it meant the family would spend less time together.

Around 9 per cent said it would make their own childcare or work commitments more difficult to manage if older relatives were still working. This figure rose to 13 per cent for parents with children under 18. But 85 per cent of people – and three quarters of young people – conceded that older workers brought valuable skills and experiences.

Figures published yesterday by the insurer Aviva show the number of over-65s in the workforce had grown by a third since 2011.