Based in Merseyside, Cliffe-Thompson was previously a teacher in further education, before working for a disability arts charity. At 70, he was semi-retired, but he took a job as an activities co-ordinator in a care home, where he\u2019s been working for the last 12 years. \u201cI\u2019ve got a small teacher\u2019s pension, which is taxed, but the government pension<\/a> is half a living wage. I can\u2019t live on that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n He is one of an increasing number of state pensioners who are delaying retirement<\/a> and continuing to work. New figures from employment law firm Littler show that there are now 1.56 million people working past state pension age. This is up 12 per cent from 1.39 million in 2020-21. The figures also found that there were an additional 562,000 state pensioners who were self-employed in 2024-25, compared with 519,000 in 2020-21.<\/p>\n New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n The figures demonstrate a shift in \u201chow people think about working as they approach their state pension age<\/a>\u201c, says Chris Brooks, head of policy at Age UK. \u201cA lot of people would have thought of 60 as the upper cut-off in the labour market, but that\u2019s no longer the case.\u201d<\/p>\n The UK state pension age is 66, but it\u2019s set to rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028. The full state pension for 2025-26 is \u00a3230.25 per week, which amounts to \u00a311,973 per year. From April 2026, this will increase to \u00a3241.30 per week, which is \u00a312,547.60 per year.<\/p>\n Using research from Loughborough University, Retirement Living Standards has come up with estimated costs for retirement. It estimates that at the minimum level for one person living alone, with no mortgage, they would need \u00a313,400 a year to cover their costs. The state pension currently falls short of this.<\/p>\n The UK\u2019s state pension is the lowest among wealthy G7 countries, with pensioners in the UK receiving less than a quarter of their pre-retirement salary, according to figures from investment platform Fidelity International. The highest is in Italy, where the average person receives 76 per cent of their working salary through their state pension, while those in France receive 58 per cent. Another report from the\u00a0Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that 14.5 per cent of people aged 66 and over in the UK were living in relative income poverty in 2022, which was the 14th highest on a list of 34 countries.<\/p>\n Cliffe-Thompson is divorced with an adult son, and lives alone. His bills keep increasing. \u201cI have an interest-only mortgage<\/a> until I\u2019m 99, so I\u2019m stuck with this. Everything keeps going up. My house insurance has gone up by 25 per cent and [the price of] food doesn\u2019t go down either. With the cost of living now, it\u2019s the insecurity \u2013 you never know what\u2019s going to go up when.\u201d<\/p>\n He tries to keep his bills down and sleeps with an electric blanket to save on heating. \u201cI\u2019m very careful, but it means I\u2019m monitoring everything.\u201d He never made plans for his retirement<\/a>. \u201cI was too busy living life, getting involved with interesting projects and having to earn a living.\u201d His family is a priority for him, \u201cwhich means earning a living\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n Working full-time at 82 takes its toll, he says. \u201cIt\u2019s tiring working five days. I go to bed at about 8.30pm and watch telly. Then I\u2019m up and ready for work [in the morning].\u201d<\/p>\n Currently, Cliffe-Thompson is in good health but he worries about what would happen if this changed and he was unable to work. \u201cI\u2019d have to try and sell my house and go into sheltered housing. But they\u2019re expensive \u2013 \u00a3800 or \u00a3900 a month, so that\u2019s the pension gone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018It would be great to not have to do it\u2019<\/p>\n Rose Rouse, 72, lives on her own in London and says that her state pension covers the cost of her bills and insurance but not much else. \u201cMoney has been an issue for me over the years because I was a single mum. I live on my own, so all my expenses are on me \u2013 council tax is \u00a3160, gas and electricity are over \u00a3100. It\u2019s quite stressful,\u201d says Rouse, who has a son and a grandson.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cost of food is huge, as is going out for a coffee. Basic things like a loaf of bread can be \u00a35.99 in the corner shops. I find it crazy that bread could be that expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n Rouse has always been self-employed. She was previously a freelance journalist before working in PR. She works about 20 hours per week doing PR and running Advantages of Age , a social enterprise that works to challenge the narrative around ageing. She can\u2019t see herself ever retiring, although she does enjoy her work. \u201cIt would be great to not have to do it, but at the same time, I am doing stuff that I feel is important,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n She\u2019s grateful for the state pension, but doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s enough. \u201cI\u2019m not sure who can survive on a state pension. There are lots of other countries where you get a pension that you can actually live on.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond her day-to-day and monthly expenses, Rouse works so that she can travel: \u201cI aim to travel without spending loads. I do everything that I want to do, but sometimes it\u2019s stressful because I\u2019m taking a risk financially in order to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Figures released by Age UK in 2024 showed that 9.5 per cent of people aged 66 and older (1.12 million people) were still working, rising from 880,000 a decade earlier.<\/p>\n Three in five retirement-age workers were men, according to the same research, and 51.5 per cent of them continued to work despite having long-term illnesses.<\/p>\n Workers aged 65 and above are predominately self-employed and working part-time, and they\u2019re the second age most likely to have a zero-hour contract (after 16- to 24-year-olds).<\/p>\n There were 13.1 million people receiving the state pension in February 2025, an increase of 210,000 on a year earlier.<\/p>\n According to estate and lettings agency Rivendell Estates 8 per cent of pensioners privately rent, with the number rising to almost 10 per cent in Scotland.<\/p>\n Leanne*, 70, from Northumberland, was previously an NHS nurse, and then ran a nursing home. Now, she works on a freelance basis and helps to look after older people in their homes. She currently has two clients, but has had to give up some jobs because the work was too physical and she was concerned it might affect her health. She works around 15 hours a week.<\/p>\n This is not how Leanne envisioned spending her days at this age. \u201cI thought I\u2019d be having a whale of a time, but it wasn\u2019t to be.\u201d Having used some of her NHS pension to pay off her mortgage, she receives a small NHS pension as well as her state pension. She would like to retire but feels she has no choice but to continue working.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to have a car, run it, keep a nice house and help family out, I don\u2019t see how anybody can manage on just the single state pension,\u201d says Leanne.<\/p>\n While her bills keep increasing, Leanne doesn\u2019t think she should have to scrimp on heating her house. \u201cBills have gone up, but I\u2019ve always thought that I would rather be warm and alive than living in misery, so I keep myself warm and pay for it.\u201d When it comes to food, she is careful about where she shops \u2013 favouring Lidl and Aldi. <\/p>\n She had hoped she\u2019d spend her retirement going on nice holidays abroad, and while she did go on one trip last year, and is hoping for two this year, this requires careful budgeting and saving. \u201cYou can do it, but you\u2019ve got to be sensible. If I was totally reliant on the single payment [state pension], that wouldn\u2019t be an option at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Many state pensioners also feel they need to continue earning to help support their children and grandchildren. \u201cI\u2019ve got a daughter who is chronically disabled. She has a daughter, too. I don\u2019t care what anybody says \u2013 when they\u2019re young, children cost you money, and when they get older, they never stop costing you money. So if you want to help them out, where does the money come from? Not everybody can save loads of money to retire with,\u201d says Leanne.<\/p>\n This is an issue Rouse and Cliffe-Thompson face, too. \u201cI\u2019d like to be able to help my son more,\u201d says Rouse. \u201cI\u2019m really horrified by their bills.\u201d Cliffe-Thompson has a son, a grandson and a great-grandson, and does what he can to support them. \u201cI\u2019ve got to help my family out, because they need money as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Andrea Barry, deputy director for work, retirement and transitions at the Centre for Ageing Better, says: \u201cThe state pension alone is not sufficient to support a minimum standard of living. The cost of living crisis will have caused many to reassess whether they had sufficient financial resources to retire. A growing number of older renters and older homeowners with mortgages still to pay off have to factor in considerable housing costs when deciding when to stop working.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tYour next read<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SEI_285979493-e1771605395712.jpg\")
Rose Rouse, 72, says: \u2018Whilst I have my health, I\u2019ll probably always be doing something\u2019 <\/p>\n
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