Letter: Take a break

Letter: Take a break

Sir: Why must we have a retirement age at all ("As people live longer let them work longer",18 August)? We still let ourselves be dragooned into cohorts, as in the Industrial Revolution, with training followed by work, followed by pension.

In our flexible world it would make better sense for everyone to alternate periods of education, employment and retirement throughout life, according to personal as well as economic circumstances.

Much of the stigma of unemployment would vanish if it were considered normal for people of "working age" to be taking time to raise young children or to further their own education.

P J STEWART

Oxford