Eighty per cent of the world’s workers want to scrap mandatory retirement, according to a new study.
HSBC’s report, The Future of Retirement, also found that most people want to continue doing some kind of work after they retire, with only 21% saying they would never want to work for pay again following retirement.
The study examines attitudes in Brazil, Canada, mainland China and Hong Kong, France, India, Japan, Mexico, the UK and the USA – territories which contain more than half of the world’s people and combine to give a representative sample of the global population.
The research also appears to show that the danger of a lack of pension investment is hitting home, with only 14% equating reaching old age with financial independence.
Sir John Bond, group chairman of HSBC Holdings, said there is a growing acceptance that workers will have to retire later to ease the burden on pensions and taxation.
“But people are not simply expecting to work longer, now they want to mix work and leisure, learning and rest,” he said.
“It is critical that governments, regulators, corporations and financial institutions understand these emerging trends in behaviour and attitude if we are to successfully tackle the pressing issues before us.”
Trade unions remain strongly opposed to the raising of pensionable age.
This week in Personnel Today unions said their stance remained unchanged in relation to public sector pensions.
The T&G said that the key to filling the savings gap was marketing schemes more effectively to staff, rather than delaying retirement.
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