More than half of the over-55s surveyed by Just Group did not believe they would be able to find a paid job, and only one in five who would like to work were confident they could find paid employment.

Women were less confident than men with only 13% confident they would be able to find employment.

Stephen Lowe, group communications director at Just Group, said: “The number of employed men aged 65+ has now crept above pre-pandemic levels but this has been more than offset by the fall in the number of working women aged 65+ where there has been a 106,000 or 17% fall in numbers.”

“If working later in life is going to be viable, it is important that older groups are given the opportunities and support they need to stay in work.”

This outlook is reflected in the labour market statistics released by the Office for National Statistics this morning for the three months to August 2021. The ONS reported a fall of 89,000 workers aged 65 or older for the period, a fall of nearly 6.3% and nearly four time the rate seen among younger workers.

Since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic there was been 283,000 rise in “inactive” over 65s according to the ONS. Most of these former workers have retired and almost 7 in 10 were women.

The picture for the workforce as a whole, reported by the ONS, was more rosy. The number of employees was up 207,000 to a record 29.2m in September, back above pre-pandemic levels.

The employment rate June-August was 75.3%, down 1.3% from pre-pandemic levels, but up 0.5% from the previous quarter. The bulk of the growth came from part-time workers.

Some 1.3m people remained on furlough at the end of August.