Around 1.4 million people in the UK were working beyond the state pension age last year, official figures have shown.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published new data which shows that the number of older people continuing to work has almost doubled since 1993, when just 753,000 pensioners were still working.

The latest figures mean that 12 per cent of pensioners across the UK were still in work in 2011, compared to just 7.6 per cent 19 years ago.

Older workers were found to be more likely to be self-employed than those below the state pension age, while they were also twice as likely to be working part-time.

According to the ONS report, older employees were able to work fewer hours due to the financial support provided by their state pension and private retirement income.

Of the 1.4 million pensioners in the labour market, 39 per cent were men and 61 per cent were women.