The Sheffield Institute for Studies on Ageing has been looking at the problems of finding suitable work packages for older people.

As more and more people are finding their pensions levels may not give them a lifestyle they had hoped for, it is more likely that they will want to go on doing work of some kind, even though it may be well below the level at which they operated during their normal working life.

Some of the problems arise because their work pattern cannot easily be divided into neat little packages and employers are finding that older folk are not prepared to work for the long hours which they may have been able to cope with when they were younger.

Some occupations can easily have an extended life but very often there are rules and regulations which mean an employee who would like to continue working is debarred from doing so.

One problem seems to be the rule which stops an older employee form working for the company from which they are drawing a pension. Since this is obviously the work for which they have the best training, it seems rather a petty rule.

If, for example, you spent your working life in a bank you are not, under current rules, allowed to draw your pension from that bank and go on working for them after retirement age.

You could go and work for another bank of course but it is highly unlikely another bank would take you on at retirement age, in spite of the fact you would probably be a very industrious employee.

The good news is that the Inland Revenue is looking at the rules and it may be that they will decide to change the way this one is implemented.

By 2006 it will become illegal to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of age under EU law and the Government will have to introduce legislation to that effect.

Quite how it will be possible to prove that you did not get a certain job because of your age I do not know but the anti-age discrimination laws have to be introduced within five years.

There will apparently be various options available, one of which will be to drop the mandatory age requirement and introduce a degree of flexibility allowing a form of staggered retirement up to age 70 or thereabouts.

The Employers Forum on Age would like to see a move away from compulsory retirement at any age and would like to see a gradual winding down over, say a ten-year period rather than the "here today, gone tomorrow" scenario.

It is interesting to note that in Australia and New Zealand, where there is no mandatory retirement age the pressure seems to be off people of that age group and they go of their own accord after working an extra two years or so.

This column has mentioned before the good work done at B&Q with their declared intent of employing those of the Third Age and it is good to see some other high street chains following their good example.

Some have dropped their age bar entirely, others have raised the age to 70 and Sainsbury's had one employee of 95!

There are also some imaginative schemes such as the Asda so-called Benidorm Leave, where older employees can take unpaid leave during the winter months and still have a job to come back to when their store is facing staff holidays in the busy summer months.

So the good news is that if you are still working but coming up to the usual retirement age it is worth talking to your staff manager to see if there is a scheme that would suit your circumstances.

You may be one of the many people for whom a busy lifetime of work is enough and you can't wait to get your hands on that chiming clock for the mantlepiece.

If so, good luck and enjoy your well-earned retirement. If you are not in the mood to be told "here's your hat - what's your hurry?" see what your employer has to offer and plan your retirement to suit yourself, not the Government or the suits in Brussels.