Is Unretirement on the Rise in the UK?

August 26 2022 - While the common pattern expected of the employee life cycle is for a long career to end in permanent retirement, new trends show that this is changing. A concept called unretirement is becoming more and more common in both the United States and the UK.

What is "unretirement"?

Though many people do still retire and remain retired for the rest of their lives, research shows that a quarter of British people now take up employment again within 15 years of retiring. While some might choose to unretire purely because they want to, research from King’s College London in 2017 found that the main motivation for a retired person choosing to return to the workforce is financial strain. Business news provider Raconteur reports that it is most common for ‘unretirees’ to return to work within five years of initially retiring and that 50% of those who were asked about their reasons for choosing to unretire reported that they were still paying off their mortgages.

Raconteur also points to figures from The Office for National Statistics, showing that as the economy has witnessed a downturn, the number of people who choose to unretire has risen sharply. In 2001, the number of people aged 65 and above who chose to re-join the workforce by becoming self-employed totalled 159,000. Inflation rates have risen since then, and our economic landscape looks different now. By 2016, the number of people who were unretiring and becoming self-employed had jumped significantly to 469,000.

Is unretirement on the rise?

This year, rates of inflation have risen very significantly due to the energy crisis (up by 9.4% in June 2022 compared to one year previously) and are expected to rise for the rest of the year.

Analysis from retirement service Lottie confirms that there has been another huge surge in interest surrounding the option of unretiring over the past year. They found that there has been a 200% increase in Google searches for "returning to work after retirement" and a 100% increase in Google searches for "working part-time after retirement" over this time.

How to stay retired

If you’re currently retired and you want your employment history to remain history, you may be looking for ways to keep yourself financially stable enough to continue enjoying your retirement.

You could do something that you find more rewarding to earn extra money without going into a mainstream job, such as online tutoring, fostering a child or pet-sitting.

If you’re lucky enough to own a holiday home, you could consider renting this out while it’s not in use. A holiday home could be a static caravan, a lodge or a chalet.

As long as you get yourself covered with holiday home insurance that protects and futureproofs your home against any potential hiccups, there’s no reason why you can’t start welcoming people into your holiday home and enjoying some extra income on the site. This is a win-win situation, allowing other people to come and enjoy some time away in your holiday home while you can also stay home and avoid searching out further employment after you’ve already spent decades working hard.

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