The 2004 Postal Survey: Attitudes to work and retirement

The national Omnibus Survey provided a broad overview of the nature of the older labour market, and all respondents over 50 (employed or retired) were asked to agree to participate in follow up research. 1100 did so, and in May 2004 these were all sent a follow up postal survey, developed through qualitative interviews with a small number of the original sample. This asked much more detailed questions about:

• Employment sector and role
• The frequency of job change
• Attitudes to work and retirement
• What would make work more or less attractive
• Returners - What are the barriers to returning to work for people over 50? What kind of support or encouragement would make returning more attractive?
• Expectations of work after retirement - like to continue? What are the barriers? What is the attraction?
• What kind of support or encouragement would make staying/returning more likely?

This survey was completed and analysed early in 2005, and the findings have been included in a number of CROW briefing papers and presentations. A summary can be found below.

Key Findings from the CROW Postal Survey

The Postal Survey added a great deal of depth to the findings of the Omnibus Survey conducted the previous year. The 400 respondents (aged 51-70) matched quite closely the profile of the original Omnibus sample in terms of social class, gender and income. The sample was slightly skewed towards people with higher qualifications and for analysis the data was weighted to adjust for this. There is no reason to suppose that these findings are unrepresentative of older people generally.

Similar questions were asked to those still in work, those retired, and those describing themselves as retired but still in employment. For the questions about a specific job, those in work were asked about their current job, and the fully retired about their last job.

Do older people like work? The responses to questions about work were remarkably positive. Over 75% of respondents agreed or agreed strongly that their jobs were enjoyable, contributed to society, made good use of their skills, was valued by their employer., and that they enjoyed working with their colleagues.

What do older people dislike about work? The largest proportion (28% ) disliked their working hours, followed by 22% who said their job was mundane, and 20% said that they did not feel valued.

Are older people discriminated against in the workplace? 17% of people said they had experienced age discrimination in seeking work, and 14% had experienced it in the workplace.

Do older people want to continue working after retiring from their main job? Here those in employment were much more positive than those who were not (whether retired, sick or unemployed). Among the employed 25% said definitely yes, and a further 27% said probably yes.

What sort of work would they consider? Overwhelmingly they would only consider part-time work (42% of those willing to consider working after “retirement”) 16% would consider voluntary work, and only 6% full-time work (the balance chose occasional or seasonal work)

Do the retired wish they had stayed? A large majority of retired respondents (82%) said that they were happy to be retired. However, when offered the statement “I wish I could have stayed in work but worked part-time” a majority agreed.

What do older people think about the ageing workforce policy issues?

There was a strong view that people should have the right, but not the obligation, to continue working as long as they wished (36% strongly agreed and 57% agreed)

A large majority thought that the skills and talents of older people are not being well used (43% strongly agree, 47% agree).

77% believed that Government’s motivation in seeking to extend working life was primarily to reduce the financial burden on young people.

Of the policy options on retirement age which Government was consulting on at the time, two thirds of respondents believed that abolishing compulsory retirement ages would be good for individuals, the economy and society, and a quarter believed that raising the State Pension Age would be reasonable.