Some senior citizens want to keep working to pay the bills and meet their health costs.

But many seniors who spoke with The Royal Gazette wanted the retirement age raised for one reason only: They're bored.

"We were just sitting around having coffee and saying that," one senior said. "There was a whole bunch of us, just sitting there, fretting about how useless we feel when there's so much left we could do."

"What happens when you stop someone from working?" Shadow Minister for Seniors Louise Jackson asked. "You are depriving them of making a living for themselves when they are perfectly healthy and capable of doing this.

"We're losing a lot of very rich resources from our seniors' community."

Many seniors have started entirely new careers after the age of 65, taking up tools as a carpenter or an artist, or even opening a shop or restaurant. In the US these are known as "bridge jobs", bridging the gap between full employment and full retirement.

Others take classes - there are special courses for seniors at the Bermuda College, both academic and physical, such as the dance classes - or travel.

Age Concern Bermuda has no position on retirement ages as of yet, however in 2002 Age Concern England said it supported raising the retirement age.

"There is no point in being constrained by old-fashioned notions of fixed retirement ages," director general Gordon Lishman told The Guardian newspaper in 2002. "With a falling birth rate and increasing life expectance, society must be able to offer its population greater choice and flexibility about when they stop work and more opportunity to provide a decent income for their later life."

"Well, exactly," one senior told The Royal Gazette when she heard Mr. Lishman's statement.

"I mean, we're not dead yet."