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Time served and taxes paid – The Great Retirees Research

people pointing at figures

After 81,000 hours of work and thousands paid in taxes, our Great Retirees deserve to enjoy their retirement.

Over the past 6 months, we have been conducting a far-reaching piece of research aimed at getting a sense of the opinions, attitudes and general working history of our Great Retirees. Having collated the information that our survey respondents kindly provided, everyone at Bower would like to thank those who took the time to be part of our research. Over the next few weeks, we will be revealing the results of our Great Retirees research in a number of online articles.

According to the research, the average British retiree contributes a total of 81,121 hours of work throughout their career. Furthermore, on average, British retirees have contributed a total of 40.5 years of work before stepping down from full employment. The sheer amount of man hours and hard work that our retirees have contributed to the country makes them the essential backbone of our economy and, one could argue, society. For those that have put in the most, a comfortable post-work life should be expected.

Other than pure man hours, the average retiree has also contributed an enormous amount in income tax throughout their careers’. The Great Retirees research revealed that the average total income tax that British retirees provide to the government coffers is around £145,000.

Couple this figure with the plethora of other taxes that our Great Retirees have had to stump up throughout their lives, and the figure would balloon even further. Having worked hard all their lives and paid considerable amounts into the system, we should be happy to allow people to have a great retirement.

Geoff Charles, CEO of Bower, comments:

“Our Great Retirees deserve to enjoy their downtime after a lifetime of contributing to society. Over the course of their career, most pensioners work for tens of thousands of hours and pay a small fortune in taxes. And this doesn’t even touch on the care and time they have committed to their family, friends and country.”

Methodology

Based on a survey of 230 UK retirees, conducted by Bower between December 2014 and February 2015.