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At least the 9-5ers have a desk to sit at. That being said, increasing the current retirement age to 70 ? as it was originally intended in Britain nearly a century ago ? doesn?t seem like much to ask for.

Or is it?

There are undeniable plusses to raising the retirement age in the face of leaping life expectancy, not the least of which is health care coverage. This is logical, considering better health care is the reason for the increases in life expectancy in the first place. However, with better health care generally comes increased costs.

Just last month two of the Island?s top health insurers ? Argus and BF&M ? noted the medical community?s ability to save lives that could never have been saved before.

Shadow Seniors Minister Louise Jackson has also noted the difference in the health of the elderly.

?They are certainly more vital and healthy ? I mean, I?m 74 years old, and I?m certainly capable of working ... I certainly count myself capable of doing a day?s work.?

However, the insurers and Mrs. Jackson also noted, life has a cost.

For the elderly, retiring at age 65 and living out the rest of their increasingly long lives on a diminished, fixed income with an ever-increasing cost of health care is terrifying ? especially when many then lose the health care coverage they received while they were employed.

Many are forced to go on HIP, Mrs. Jackson said, the basic hospital insurance premium which covers just two doctors? visits per year. Others have to dip into their savings to pay for expensive private healthcare.

?It?s very, very difficult for a person to make it. A lot of people can?t even afford HIP. There are seniors out there with nothing at all.

?If they could work, if they could have medical insurance, we would have a healthier community. We wouldn?t have to spend all that money from Financial Assistance.?

Paying for health care is one problem; paying for adequate housing is another facing seniors as Bermudians must, by now, be all too aware.

The Royal Gazette has already highlighted the plights of more than one senior who has been forced to leave the Island because they can no longer afford to live here.

The recent Fordham University survey on Ageing in Bermuda showed 70 percent of seniors between the ages of 65-79 owned and lived in their own homes, as did 80 percent of seniors over the age of 80.

Those statistics are reassuring, but Mrs. Jackson said many seniors are being forced to sell their homes to subsidise their pensions. Numbers, she said, have never been verified, although one is one too many. ?I certainly know of more than one, my phone rings off the hook.?

For those seniors who do not own and live in their own homes, Bermuda?s soaring rents present a nearly insurmountable difficulty. The Ageing in Bermuda survey showed that more than half of the Island?s seniors over the age of 80 and a quarter of seniors aged 65-79 earn less than $12,000 per year ? the equivalent of a year?s rent given that many studio apartments can cost $1,000 per month or more.

Even seniors living in Bermuda Housing Trust properties, where rents are well below market value, are currently fighting against proposed rent increases at those properties, with many saying it is nearly impossible to make ends meet as it is.