Labour’s plan to tempt back to work and boost
BRITAIN must celebrate the “skills and talents” of older workers if it is going to lure them back to employment and boost the economy, Labour says.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth has revealed a party crusade to tempt over-50s who have retired early.
This would mean the economy is boosted by their untapped skills, as well as preventing older workers from running into financial difficulties in later life.
Flexible hours, tailored training and revamped Jobcentres, which radiate opportunity rather than despair, would all help achieve this, said Mr Ashworth.
The Labour politician revealed his own childhood was blighted by unemployment following the closure of the Manchester Playboy Club casino where his father worked as a croupier and his mother was a Bunny girl.
Mr Ashworth, 44, said: “I remember going to the dole office in the 1980s with my dad. I remember queuing up in that dole office and I remember the quite haunted looks on the men in that queue.
“It was a horrible, grey, forbidding atmosphere.”
There are 1.2 million people classed as unemployed in the UK, but experts believe another 3.5 million under 65 have simply given up on work.
This includes nearly 400,000 people aged 50 to 65 who have left the workforce since the Covid pandemic.
At the same time, there are more than 1.2 million vacant jobs in the UK today.
Mr Ashworth said: “This is a generation of people whose skills and talents we should be celebrating. We should be helping
people return, to find the right types of work. We should be valuing them, as they have a huge contribution to make.”
He argues many over-50s would welcome jobs with flexible hours, allowing them to fit in other commitments.
As work and pensions secretary, he would encourage firms to provide these.
He said: “There are going to be new jobs in green technologies, in automation and digital services, and existing jobs are going to change. So you are going to need a Jobcentre network working hand in hand with local employers and local skills providers, ensuring that people have opportunities to retrain.” Mr Ashworth warned that those who retire early risk poverty in old age if they have not saved enough in their pensions, saying: “It may be that they feel reasonably-off now, but they have to make a calculation about the next 20 to 30 years. We need to make sure they get better advice.”
But he ruled out reversing reforms introduced by ex-chancellor George Osborne, which allowed people to withdraw some or all of a private pension from the age of 55. Mr Ashworth,
educated at a Greater Manchester comprehensive, has enjoyed a stellar career in politics since graduating from Durham University.
Ex-chancellor Gordon Brown gave him a role in the Treasury after spotting his talents. Since becoming MP for Leicester South in 2011, he has been shadow cabinet office minister and shadow health secretary, before landing his current role.
But he feels the opportunities he enjoyed were only possible because his parents were able to work.
He added: “Yes it’s hard, but they knew it opens doors, it transforms horizons, it gives you and your family opportunities to build a home, to save a little bit, to go on holiday, to build a better life.
“I think it’s absolutely obscene so many people are denied help and support today. I want to change that.”
Conservatives argue his approach is not shared by colleagues in a party that has veered sharply to the Left since 2010.
They highlighted comments last week from shadow work and pensions minister Karen Buck, who slammed plans to make benefit claimants attend more Jobcentre interviews – and attacked the Government for using “the crude and unproven instruments of conditionality”.
‘We should be valuing them’