THE Government wants to let us work longer, wants to abolish automatic retiring ages at 60 or 65. So who's going to do the voluntary work?

At first glance it seems fine - just look at Newcastle United and Bobby Robson. For every person skipping happily off to the golf course on an early retirement package in their fifties, there are others who've got plenty to offer and want to carry on indefinitely. Frankly, I think they're mad - but it's good to have a choice.

Then there's the small problem of the fact that the over-50s - over-40s come to that - already have difficulty in getting new jobs or even keeping their old ones, so that doesn't seem too cheerful for the over-65s.

But, more importantly, if all these active oldies are going to carry on being wage slaves for another few years, who's going to run the charity shops, organise lifts for even older pensioners or help out in schools?

Volunteers save the nation an amazing £40bn a year. But numbers are declining. Fewer youngsters are offering their services for free, as are fewer middle-aged people. The only age group in which people are now doing more unpaid work than they were ten years ago are the over-65s. But it is precisely because they are fit and active and want to do something that they could easily decide to carry on working. And then where will we be?

The National Trust would be in a state of collapse for a start. It has 40,000 volunteers - they outnumber full-time staff ten to one and do half the work. Sports clubs, social clubs, parish councils, community associations, charities still rely on pensioners, if only to run the raffle, do the books and keep things straight.

The sad part, of course, is that we have to rely on the oldies. Last month, Gordon Brown announced a £300m package to boost volunteering, but even there, the biggest chunk - £120m - is destined for establishing a National Experience Corps for the over-50s. Grown-ups again.

True, some youngsters volunteer - look at Prince William in Chile, for example - but there always seems to be a much bigger element of self-interest here. It' s a bit of an adventure, or looks good on the CV. Youngsters volunteering are always that bit more calculating. These days maybe they have to be.

At last year's launch of Time Bank - a scheme which puts a new twist on volunteering - Tony Blair promised to give up one day to help in a school.

I don't think he's done it yet. Well, he's probably had other things on his mind.

But no doubt he'll get round to it when he has time - in around 20 years or so.