Research carried out last year stressed the growing challenge facing employers in terms of managing and supporting the UK's aging workforce.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics have suggested that the number of people aged 65 and over still working has reached 1.19 million—up 25,000 from a year ago. There were also now more people aged 50-74 in work than ever before. However, the overall trend was hiding the fact that 12% people are forced to stop working before reaching state pension(养老金，退休金) age because of ill health or disability.
Nearly half a million (436,000) workers who are within five years of state pension age have had to leave work for medical reasons, with an apparent divide between the North (worse) and South (better). Those in the lowest-paid jobs, including cleaners, leisure industry workers and people doing heavy laboring jobs, were twice as likely to stop working before retirement age, because of sickness and disability than managers or professionals.
Within this, the needs of the "sandwich generation"— those juggling work with caring for elderly dependents as well as children — needed to be given greater priority (优先权) by employers, a white paper by insurer and health care provider concluded.
Its research argued that 66% of managers think the average age of retirement in their organization will increase in the next 5 to 10 years. Yet, 36% reported being unaware of anything their organization did to attract, keep and engage older staff. Fewer than a quarter (23%) of employees said they felt supported by their employer with their responsibilities for caring for a loved one.
This was perhaps unsurprising, given that only 28% of managers said their organization had formal policies (政策) and practices in place to support these employees, argues health care distribution director Chris Horlick.
