Official figures show that, on average, 270 pensioners each day are joining the UK’s workforce. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that an extra 100,000 over 65’s in Britain are now working, compared to a year ago.  There are, currently, 959,000 people above the traditional retirement age in employment.

Shockingly, some finance experts and politicians are hailing this data as a positive sign that the economy is recovering.  Whilst it is, indeed, true some older people actively choose to work longer, the vast majority of the thousands of pensioners who go back to work every month do so because they are simply not in a financially secure enough position to retire.

The truth is that most people want to retire as soon as possible, but an increasing number simply can’t afford to.
The state pension is too low and private pensions that people have are far too often not enough to cover the shortfall.

The reality is that most adults don’t understand the need or how to financial plan. Saving is a habit, financial planning is a habit. I believe it should be taught from a young age by in secondary schools.

We’ve long been campaigning for financial planning to be given the same level of importance as career advice in schools.

We need to teach our young people the basics of financial planning so that they are better informed and are more likely to be able to reach their long-term financial goals, which include not being forced to work well into their seventies due to a lack of funds.

The need for this is becoming increasingly important as it’s becoming ever clearer that the State will no longer be able to provide for us in our older years in the way that it has done for previous generations and because people are living longer, meaning the money has to go further.

Whilst the world will have certainly changed when today’s school leavers hit retirement, the fundamentals of financial planning will almost certainly remain the same.

Failure to teach our youngsters financial planning will inevitably mean that many, many more will have to work longer than they had hoped.

Nigel Green deVere Group blog December 14th