Will you still need me when I’m 64?

The answer to the question posed by The Beatles in their chart topping song seems to be a resounding yes more than 40 years after the lyrics were written.

It’s a fact more over 65s are working than a decade ago – and the number’s set to keep on rising as the default retirement age is scrapped and the first of the baby boomers hit that age milestone.

With a record 640,000 people reaching 65-years-old in the next year – instead of giving up work, many will swell the ranks of those who can’t or won’t kick the habit of a lifetime.

Of course, many people regarded their 65th birthday as a finishing line with a chequered flag. The time when they could finally kick off their shoes and relax without worrying about the boss.

For many, the government has picked up that line and pushed retirement further off towards the horizon.

The Office for National Statistics reveals that in the last three months of 2010, 270,000 full-time and 600,000 part-time workers were over-65.

That means 8.8% of the the age group are still toiling away compared with just 4.6% a decade ago.

As the baby boomers swell their ranks, in less than a year, Britain could see 10% of the population over 65 years old still working.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Retiring at 65 was always arbitrary anyway.

The story goes that when the retirement age was set in the USA in the 1930’s, half of the retirement schemes opted for 65 years old as the threshold and the rest had 70-years-old.

After much discussion, 65 years old was considered the most suitable retirement age. The baton was picked up by the Welfare State in Britain and successive governments have run with it until now.

As an aside, volunteer charity WRVS has produced research that shows over-65s inject almost £40 billion more in to the economy than they take out as state pensions, welfare and health services.

The return to society is more than financial, too, according to the WRVS, with 50% volunteering to help charitable organisations and 65% regularly help out elderly neighbours.

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