More support needed for older people in the workplace – says new report

More tailor-made programs are needed to get older people back into the workforce according to a new report from the Equality of Opportunity Committee for the National Assembly for Wales.

An inquiry by the committee found previous periods of economic downturns have had a greater impact on older workers and initial figures suggested the current recession was no exception.

While evidence submitted for the report showed there were a wide variety of programs and policies that may be helping older people find employment, not all of them take the specific challenges they face into account.

Committee Chair Ann Jones AM said: “It is vitally important that people are able to work for as long as they want or need to.

“Enabling older people to work longer not only benefits the individual through allowing them to remain active and maintain social contacts, it eases the pressure on the pension system.”

“It also reduces pensioner poverty whilst making a valuable contribution to society as younger workers gain valuable skills and knowledge from older colleagues.”

While the committee found plenty of anecdotal evidence of discrimination against older people in the work place, a lack of available information meant establishing actual facts to back up the claims proved difficult.

“Another important finding in this report is the lack of robust monitoring and evaluation of the extent of discrimination, and the effect of outcomes of Welsh Government policies on older people,” said the Assembly Member for Vale of Clwyd.

“Therefore one of our recommendations is that the Welsh Government works in partnership with key stakeholders, including older people themselves, to reveal the nature and extent of employment related discrimination against them.”

Other recommendations within the report are:

• The Welsh Government ensures that the development of all employment related policies and programmes specifically considers the particular challenges facing older people, and encourages the same across the public and private sectors.

• The Welsh Government routinely monitors and evaluates its business and employment support programmes in relation to age, as well as other equality strands so that it is possible to assess the impact of a programme on, for example, older women or older disabled people. To inform flexible and prompt reactions in times of economic change, information must be readily available to enable the assessment of the impact of on older people.

• The Welsh Government urges the UK Government to remove the mandatory retirement age.

The Welsh Government collects information on the age of candidates applying for positions of employment in the organisation, as well as the age of those actually appointed