1 in 4 baby boomers not in employment
‘Ageist society should value older staff ’
ECONOMY: More than a quarter of people in Yorkshire who have turned 50 but are not yet drawing a pension are now out of work, says a charity.
The Centre for Ageing Better has called for more action to help older workers – whom it says are essential to the UK economy – to stay in good-quality employment.
MORE THAN a quarter of people in Yorkshire who have turned 50 but are not yet drawing a pension are now out of work, according to a charity.
The Centre for Ageing Better has called for more action to help older workers – whom it says are essential to the UK economy – to stay in good-quality employment.
Its researchers found that although more people aged over 50 had joined the jobs market in the last decade, as the “baby boom” generation matured into late middle-age, there had been a “sharp decline” in the numbers earning and paying tax.
In Yorkshire, nearly 28 per cent of such workers were out of a job – a figure slightly above the national average, the Centre said.
Many of those affected faced “age discrimination” when they tried to find work, it added.
The report says: “Society is failing to realise the tax-raising potential of this age group.”
It calculates that halving the over-50s “employment gap” could raise nearly £3bn in income tax and National Insurance contributions, and inject up to £18bn into the national economy.
More jobs would also help to reduce the welfare bill, with £7bn currently being spent on benefits for job hunters in their 50s and 60s each year, the report adds.
Its author, Patrick Thomson, said: “Our analysis makes clear how integral older workers are to the future of the UK economy.
“Being in work is a way of redistributing income via the tax system for all. It reduces the welfare bill and promotes savings and financial independence in retirement.”
But he said negative and “ageist” stereotypes towards older workers were still commonplace.
“Ageism and misperceptions of older workers contribute to both employers and employees failing to take early preventative action,” said Mr Thomson, who is also senior programme manager at Centre for Ageing Better.
The report, titled A Silver Lining for the UK Economy, accuses successive governments of focusing their policies on helping younger people find work, and says employment rates among the young are rising at the same time as the number of older workers increases.
“Older workers are just as productive and perform as well as in the workplace as younger people,” it adds.
The report also says: “Older workers who fall out of work, remain out of work for longer than people of other ages and are more likely to say that they experience age discrimination”.
But it warns that the so-called “Generation X” of people born in the 1960s and 1970s face potentially even greater challenges in future decades.
That generation would be the first to approach retirement without defined benefit pension schemes, and would feel the “full impact” as the state pension age rose, the researchers said.
Mr Thomson said: “Older workers offer a solution to the fiscal challenge of our longer lives.”
Older workers perform as well in the workplace as younger people. The report, titled A Silver Lining for the UK Economy.