14,000 pensioners take up low paid jobs - Alexander

5.04.08pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 23rd Aug 2005

14,000 pensioner families are taking up jobs so poorly paid they are receiving Working Tax Credits.

The figures show that many people are now reaching pension able age without the means to properly fund their retirement. Rather than face the hardship of relying on state pensions many older people are forced to stay longer in employment and take up low paid jobs to make ends meet.

In order to qualify for Working Tax Credits pensioners would have to have an income of below £11,500 including earnings, state pension, occupational pension and private pensions.

Regionally the areas with the greatest number of pensioners claiming the benefit are:

South West 1,800 Yorks and Humber 1,300

North West 1,700 Scotland 1,300

Wales 1,500 East Midlands 1,100

West Midlands 1,400 South East 1,000

Commenting Danny Alexander MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said:

"People approaching or past retirement age should be allowed to decide for themselves how much they want to work. But these figures suggest that many people are too poor to retire and forced to go on working in low paid jobs.

"We already know that the number of women over 60 in work has increased by nearly a third since 1997 and for men over 65 by nearly a quarter.

"While the Government should allow people to work on beyond conventional retirement ages, the suspicion must be that the mean and means-tested pensions system is so poor that many older people are being forced to go on working to make ends meet.