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OLDER Australians want to stay in the workforce regardless of their age and financial situation, a new report says.

About a quarter of people between 65 and 70 were still working.

OLDER Australians want to stay in the workforce regardless of their age and financial situation, a new report says.

With the Federal Government considering boosting the pension age until 70, the Financial Services Council report, ‘How Older Workers are Valued’, found an increasing number of older workers are eager to stay employed regardless of their age.

The figure jumped from 53 per cent in 2012 to 66 per cent in 2014.

However, the report also found one in five older workers has been the target of age discrimination.

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The Council of the Ageing Australia’s chief executive Ian Yates said about a quarter of people between 65 and 70 were still working.

“A significant amount of people do want to work on because they enjoy what they are doing,’’ he said.

“Or they know they are going to live longer than people used to and they need the money.”

FSC chief executive officer John Brogden argues that the preservation age — the age superannuation can be accessed — should be raised to 65 to coincide with lifting the retirement age and to help improve the nation’s fiscal status.

He said the report highlighted attitudes towards older workers was finally changing for the better.

“For a long time the general view has been for people in their late 50s and 60s aren’t welcome in the workplace and it’s very hard to get a job and retrain,’’ Mr Brogden said.

“While I’m sure that is the case, this report shows there is willingness to employ and retrain.”

The report, which quizzed Australians aged between 50 and 75 years and employers and human resources managers from a range of sectors, found older workers had been presented with growing opportunities to train or upskill.

This rose from 39 per cent in 2012 to 67 per cent in 2014.

Mr Yates said it remained a myth that you couldn’t upskill or train older workers and it did not make economic sense to hold back from investing in ageing workers.

The report also showed that while fewer Australians experienced age discrimination it was still prevalent.

It fell from 28 per cent in 2012 to 18 per cent in 2014.

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