With the cost-of-living crisis raging, last night’s The One Show (January 5) aired a segment on pensioners remaining in the workplace after the national retirement age.
Alex Jones and Roman Kemp hosted the show, with Alex opening the segment by introducing “four amazing pensioners who would do any business proud”.
The following film showed two ladies who had “no other choice” but to continue working.
But it also showed the other side of the debate, with two older McDonald’s workers loving their jobs.
The segment did prove divisive with viewers watching at home, though.
Cost-of-living crisis: Pensioners remaining in work
Many OAPs are struggling to survive on their pensions and have “no other choice” but to return to work.
The film explained that last year saw record highs of people over 65 in the workplace.
Karen, 66, admitted she can’t afford to retire from her three cleaning jobs.
Sue, 71, works in local cafe and both ladies said they would “end up in debt” if they gave up their jobs.
“I don’t know what’s going to give first – the cost of living coming down or my health,” said Karen.
Sue admitted: “I’ll work till I drop.”
On the other side of the debate were two older ladies working for the fast-food chain.
One said that she loved meeting new people as part of the job and added that it helped to keep her fit, explaining she does 22,000 steps a day!
The film explained that McDonald’s has benefitted from having older employees.
One manager revealed they were always on time, had a good worth ethic and brought valuable life skills to the job.
Dragons’ Den stars wade in
Crossing back to Alex and Roman, the presenters were joined in the studio by Dragons’ Den stars Sara Davies and Peter Jones.
Sara said: “I’d say the same for the older people we have in our company. They really hold good old-fashioned work values.”
Doing a piece on poverty forcing older people to ‘work til they drop’ then in the studio going on about how great this is!
Peter then explained that his 88-year-old dad still goes in to work with him every day.
“The true values they bring, you want the younger generation to see the examples they set,” Sara added.
The One Show viewers react
However, many viewers watching at home didn’t quite see it that way.
“Normalising hard-strapped pensioners having to go back to work (and hard-graft and low-paid work) to make ends meet risking their health is really deplorable,” said one.
“Doing a piece on poverty forcing older people to ‘work til they drop’ then in the studio going on about how great this is! Not reading the room – this was about poverty-level pensions forcing people to work!” declared another.
“Please don’t try to romanticise pensioners being forced to go back out to work because this country’s government is not looking after them. Absolutely appalling,” said a third.
“What a patronising and one-sided view of pensioners having to work beyond retirement in UK. In the rest of EU pension levels are sufficient to enable people to enjoy their retirements, not have to work until they die like in UK now,” another said said.
“I notice they didn’t read out any of the many tweets quite rightly pointing out that shocking story of pensioners being forced back into work, but @BBCTheOneShow marketing it as a ‘look how good it is working until you die, it’s a great way to meet people’,” said another.
However, not everyone felt the same.
One viewer commented: “I’d far rather employ an older person, nothing romantic about wanting to get out and mix whilst topping up your pension. Most of my friends intend to stay in work for as long as possible.”
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