Hundreds of thousands of over 50s want work
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Some 800,000 people between 50 and state pension age are currently inactive but want to work, according to a new report commissioned by PRIME and written by leading economist Christopher Smallwood.
The majority of new businesses are created by people in their forties and fifties - indeed business owners aged over 50 account for 15 per cent of all business start-ups in England and Wales.
Companies started by older people have a 70 per cent chance of surviving the first five years, compared with only 28 per cent for younger people. Yet the report finds that finance for Jobcentre’s New Deal self-employment programme for the over 50s has been reduced.
“It is worth putting real money behind a drive to re-employ economically inactive over-50s”, says the report’s author Christopher Smallwood.
“In order to reintroduce them to the workforce, two things are needed: (1) widespread changes in employers’ practices relating to training, retention and recruitment, and (2) a more proactive approach from Government agencies to help people back to work, particularly in the area of self-employment.”
The report says that there are still a greater number of complaints about age discrimination in the workplace than about any other form of discrimination. However, the solution does not necessarily lie in more legislation.
What is required, argues Smallwood, is a change in attitudes and practices of employers both in the public and private sector, together with a greater focus on the possibilities for self-employment.
Self-employment also has an important role to play. A self-created job can put an individual back in control of their lives and build on the skills, experience and knowledge acquired over a life-time.
However, for people coming off benefits some significant poverty traps remain that make test trading difficult. “The confusion with HMRC needs to be resolved very quickly”, says Smallwood. At the moments it’s “confusing even to the advisers trying to explain the system”.
Smallwood report executive summary
Christopher Smallwood is a leading UK economist, and has held a wide range of senior positions in government, industry, banking and media. He is a Member of the Competition Commission and until April 2005 he was Chief Economic Adviser to Barclays plc.
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August 2nd, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I am 50 on job seekers and want to start my own business. I know that young people can get test trading for 6 months where they still get job seekers and an extra £30 per fortnight for 6 months to help them. I asked about this sort of scheme for the over 50’s and was told it did not exist and that I would have to sign off job seekers and go self employed for 16+ hours per week and claim working tax credits. As I would not be earning a lot straight away I cannot do this as bills have to be paid so I am being discriminated against because of my age. Why can over 50’s not have the same scheme as the under 25’s??
September 4th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Hi Carolann
There really is an anomaly, and I am sorry you were caught up in it. The problem seems to be that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are required to see people as either in training or in work. The problem with test trading is that it falls in between the two. Civil servants did look into this and came back saying that there needed to be primary legislation to resolve it. What is actually happening is that the government is changing the Incapacity Benefit to the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). Alongside this the Flexible New Deal (fND) is being introduced next year. We are hopeful that there will be far more opportunities for support into self-employment under fND.
Meanwhile I do hope you registered with PRIME for a pack of materials to help you start to think about self-employment.