Nearly a quarter of companies expect staff to work beyond retirement age in the next ten years, according to research from insurer Prudential.

Martyn Bogira, director at Prudential, says: ‘As health and longevity continue to improve and people look to fund a longer life in retirement, it is inevitable that compromises have to be made.

‘The statutory retirement age for men and women is due to rise to 68 by 2046, so working longer will be a fact of life for those entering the workforce today but these findings suggest that increasing numbers of pensioners will be forced to work later far sooner than this. Employers have told us that their staff costs could rise as their employees work for longer.’

Of the 507 finance directors surveyed, 7 per cent reported an increase in the number of employees asking to work past traditional retirement ages in the last 12 months.

Businesses in the north of the country expect an average of 16.2 per cent of their staff to work past the statutory retirement age compared with an average of 2.4 per cent in Greater London and the South East.