Eric Auben is an executive committee member of the French union CGT (General Workers' Union). He works in the retirement area.

We're not opposed to the ones who want to be allowed to carry on working over 65. But there needs to be a real choice for the worker, and for the instant that's not the case. Very few people have contributed enough to the system to retire at 65. Firstly because of the precariousness of careers: lots of people are out of work for long periods due to illness or unemployment. But also because people are studying longer.

So the point is not to give workers the chance to carry on working, but to allow those who want to leave at 60 [the pension-eligible age in France] to have a full pension. The law that's being discussed at the moment would be the same for everyone, no matter how hard their labour. It has to be taken into account that in some jobs it's physically impossible to work after the age of 60. Having them labouring on just to make a decent pension is ridiculous.

The government, following European direction, wants to extend the contribution period in order to compensate for extended life expectancy. We think that other resources should be thought of to finance the system without having to make people work longer. We've got numerous ideas - for example, contributions on capital gains and stock options.

We know that people work longer in other European countries. But it's a mistake to simply compare the retirement age. For example, in Sweden they increase the working age, but they class more people as handicapped there. In Germany, the legal age is 67, but they take internship periods into account. And in France, employment amongst seniors stands at 38% - one of the worst in Europe.

What's for sure is that the French protectionist model has disappeared. The number of employed and retired poor people certainly isn't getting any smaller."

Eighty-five-year-old Raoul Bellanger, from Marseille, has been retired for 25 years

I retired at 60 [retirement age at that point was 65] because I was ill. I'm a sufferer from coeliac disease [gluten intolerance] and at that time they didn't know how to treat it. I was very sick and I didn't want to die at work. The problem was that I hadn't worked enough years for my pension, because my early work life was in Algeria, which didn't count. But I managed to put some things together - I had a small vet's pension and a few other things. So finally I had enough money [€2,500 a month].

The government's reform plans don't shock me. If people are happy working, you shouldn't force them to stop. And anyway maybe retirement age should be pushed back. There are more and more old people, and young people start working later and later. Money needs to be found somewhere. I was a sales rep and I didn't particularly like the job. But if I'd been in good health, I would have resigned myself to carry on.

I find it quite normal that those who do hard labour, breaking their back on a building site, can leave earlier. I also find it abnormal that some civil servants leave earlier than others. Some fill up their pension account by getting another job. They're taking the place of someone who needs it."

Osize Omoluabi is an economist who grew up in Nigeria and now lives in the US. He tells us about the system in both countries.

The compulsory retirement age for most people is 65 in the US. But most people seek a second job afterwards because they can't afford to live on the monthly social security amount. They try to make ends meet but after one or two years they simply can't. It's only just manageable if you've already paid your mortgage off. So to get around the 65 mark many of them do part-time jobs that are paid by commission, or work with families, not companies, or are employed as part-time consultants, paid fees, not a salary. But it's not easy to find! Post retirement is a very stressful time for Americans.

This working group wasn't such a big deal before, but recently, with the baby boomers coming up for retirement, they're taking up a larger chunk of both the workforce and the economy. So people are being encouraged to save outside in private savings. But of course, with the crisis, those private investments took a hit too. Some of those who took the care to save their own money for when they retired have just seen their assets halved. And to make matters worse, Congress is currently debating increasing the working age because the pensions scheme is going bankrupt.

Xia Yeliang is a research fellow in economy from China.

Retirement is considered normal in China and the compulsory age is 55 for women and 60 for men. Half of retirees look for another job after retiring. The others depend on their children, who provide them with a stable income. They can also get some social security money; the amount varies from city to city. You get much more in the big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In other places it's nothing. It's very hard to find a job when you're old, especially in the services sector, where they look for 18-25-year-olds, and even in management they're looking for 30-45-year olds."

Au Waipang is a businessman from Singapore.

Civil servants have to retire at 62 in Singapore and the private sector is encouraged to follow similar guidelines, which a lot of people do. There is no state pension as such; to afford their retirement each citizen is obliged to pay money into the central provident fund over their working life. The problem we are facing now is that this generation's life expectancy is much longer than it's been before, and the government is worried about these people not saving enough. If you have penniless people who need medical help or are sleeping on the street, then it becomes a state problem. So they're encouraging people to work longer.

The compulsory age has already gone up from 55 in the past ten years and is now becoming 62. There was a lot of resistance at first. It's not just a matter of whether people are willing to carry on - it's whether the companies are willing too. In Asia older people are expected to have senior posts - but at the same time they can't be in such position if they're too old. Singapore needs fresh thinking to understand that people have to step down when they're too old. So the government will encourage companies to provide opportunities for older people, for them to work part time for example."