I am responding to the Committee’s call for evidence on behalf of the International Longevity Centre UK (ILC), the UK’s specialist think tank on the impact of longevity on society.

We welcome the Kickstart Scheme that has supported tens of thousands of people into work and would like to support the call for the scheme to be extended. However, while we support this initiative, we believe it is urgent that a similar scheme is adopted for older workers who, like younger workers, have been heavily hit by the pandemic.

According to recent ONS figures on the impact of the pandemic on older workers:

• Between December 2020 and February 2021, employment rates of 50–64 year-olds fell from 72.6 to 71.1%, and from 11.5 to 10.4% for those aged 65+, despite an increase in the population aged 50 years and over in this period.[1]
• Older workers still in work reported working fewer working hours than usual during this time period, and a quarter of all employees on furlough (1.3 million) were aged 50 or over.[2]
• Older workers who find themselves unemployed as a result of COVID-19 are twice as likely to be out of work for 12 months or more as younger workers.[3]

Older workers support economic growth and will be instrumental in the economic recovery from the pandemic. ILC research has found that people aged 50 and over earned 30% of total earnings (£237 billion) in 2018 and that this could rise to 40% by 2040 (£311 billion).[4] However, it is vital we support skills and give opportunities to people of all ages to ensure we are not losing out on their valuable contributions to the economy. While we welcome the Government’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee, skills need to go beyond A level equivalents.

Without further support from Government, a huge number of people aged over 50 will find early retirement forced on them, to the detriment of the UK’s economic recovery from the pandemic.

The Government’s Kickstart scheme is a brilliant initiative to support younger people on Universal Credit back into work. But there is no reason why a similar initiative could not also support those made redundant or forced into early retirement by the pandemic to return to work.

Notes

This consultation fed in to the Public Accounts Commitee’s report on the DWP Employment Support: Kickstart Scheme, which can be downloaded here.

References

[1] Office for National Statistics (ONS), 2021. Living Longer: Older workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

[2] Office for National Statistics (ONS), 2021. Living Longer: Older workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

[3] Learning and Work Institute, 2021. Preventing long-term unemployment among older workers after coronavirus.

[4] Office for National Statistics (ONS), 2021. Living Longer: Older workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.