Sageism not Ageism: Joyce says ‘Get wise to work after 50’ - More chance of dying than getting job if made redundant after 50

Welsh people who are made redundant in Wales after 50 are more likely to die before retirement than find a job, evidence suggests.

JOYCE WATSON AM is raising the issue of people working after the age of 50 in her Short Debate Sageism not Ageism: Getting wise to work after 50 in the National Assembly for Wales today. She is calling for monitoring of recruitment in the public sector.

Mid and West Wales Labour AM JOYCE WATSON said:

"Too many people are not being given the opportunity to work past 50, and they have a lot to give.

"0ne in three people aged between 50 and state retirement age in Wales are economically inactive, with the most stubborn rates of economic inactivity in the 50-65 age group. At the same time, one in three of us in Wales are over 50 and this figure is growing.

"While not everyone over 50 wants to work, Prime Cymru estimates that there are at least 50,000 older people in Wales who want but lack work.

"This is also a public health issue, as the health benefits of rewarding work are proven.
"Besides the human costs of this, we are wasting an enormous amount of talent, experience and skill, and research shows the benefits older workers provide to employers.

"It appears age discrimination is prevalent in both the public and private sector. In a recent survey, nine out of ten older employees believed their company discriminated on the basis of age and over a third who had retired considered they were ‘forced’ into it. I would like to see more monitoring of recruitment in the public sector to gather evidence on this.

"The numbers of older people working is at an all time high thanks to the efforts of our Labour governments in Westminster and the Assembly, but we must redouble our efforts.

"Ruth Marks, our newly appointed Commissioner for Older People in Wales, is doing useful work and I look forward to working with her.

"Our Older People’s Strategy pledges ‘to promote and develop older people’s capacity to continue to work and learn for as long as they want’, and the £20 million that has been allocated to implementing the second phase will help realise this.

"We need to encourage employers to recruit and retain older workers. We should extend flexible working rights to older and disabled workers who can find it difficult to find employment because of caring responsibilities.

"As someone who changed direction later in life and was given opportunities to forge a new career I want everyone to have these same opportunities. 40% of the inactive 50-64 yr olds have no qualifications.

"It’s time we all got wise to work after 50."


4th June 2008

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