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Working beyond the state pension age in the United Kingdom: the role of working time flexibility and the effects on the home

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2007

ANDREAS CEBULLA ,
SARAH BUTT  and
NICK LYON
ANDREAS CEBULLA*
Affiliation:
National Centre for Social Research, London.
SARAH BUTT
Affiliation:
National Centre for Social Research, London.
NICK LYON
Affiliation:
National Centre for Social Research, London.
*
Address for correspondence: Andreas Cebulla, National Centre for Social Research, 35 Northampton Square, London EC1V 0AX. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The present and future security of employee-pension funding remains at the forefront of public debate across Europe and beyond. In the United Kingdom, to finance future pension entitlements it has been suggested that the state pension age be increased. This paper presents the results of analyses of four major national social surveys that have explored the working and living conditions of workers in paid employment after the state pension age. Comparing the circumstances of these workers with workers just below that age illustrates the extent to which it constitutes a break in the working and domestic lives of older people. The findings suggest that, in order to accommodate older workers in the workplace, more attention may need to be placed on informal as well as contractual arrangements of flexible working. Beyond part-time working, older workers rarely take up additional or alternative flexible working arrangements. At the same time, older workers continue to experience housework as burdensome, while in partnered households the gendered division of domestic labour prevails. Research and policy have yet to consider in depth these risks associated with working longer in life.

Keywords

older workersextended working lifestate pension ageflexible working
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 27 , Issue 6 , November 2007 , pp. 849 - 867
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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