Baroness Altmann CBE, Were Not Yet Past It

Our population is getting older. In the next 10 years the number of people aged between 50 and State Pension age will rise by 3.2 million, while the numbers aged 16 to 49 will fall – and amazingly, one in three babies born today is expected to live to 100.

It is of course great news that many of us are living longer, healthier lives. But it also means we need to rethink what ‘old’ means.

People are not ‘past it’ when they reach 50 or 60 so we must challenge these entrenched stereotypes – and that includes within the workplace.

To some extent, older workers themselves can internalise the social norms and write themselves off because they reach a certain age, but this helps no one. I would love to see older people who want to work having the chance to continue to hone their skills –we’re never too old to learn something new.

I also encourage employers to continue to invest in training for their staff, regardless of age. Some are already signing up for apprenticeship-type programmes and I hope many more will choose to in future.

Encouragingly, there is some evidence that old-fashioned attitudes are changing. Recent fgures show that older workers (aged 50-64) are more likely to be in employment than at any time since records began – with the employment rate for this group reaching 70%. Recent data also shows that the employment rate for those who are 65 and over is also rising sharply now reaching 10.6% per cent.

With 9.6 million people 50+ now working in the UK - an increase of over two million over the past decade – this suggests that we are all becoming more open-minded to the benefts of staying in work.

Although this is a move in the right direction, we must keep up the momentum – there is still a long way to go.

To harness the potential of older workers and I urge all employers to take this issue seriously and plan for an ageing workforce.

There are huge opportunities if we can do this. Enabling those who want to work longer has the power to make British businesses more competitive and increase our country’s economic activity signifcantly.

Indeed if people worked just one year longer, it would add 1% to the economy, boosting it by £17bn.

Also research shows that younger people’s employment prospects also rise as employment rates of older people increase. The fallacy that older workers steal younger workers’ jobs is harmful to the economy.

There is not a fxed number of jobs. Keeping more older people in work helps to increase their incomes and gives them more money to spend – and an increase in spending power leads to more jobs being created overall.

Conversely, if more older people stop work, they will have lower spending power and ultimately there will be fewer jobs for younger people.

This is not about forcing older workers to stay on, many actually want to keep working. Not only can this beneft their income and general wellbeing, it can also provide a signifcant boost to their pensions.

In fact, if an average earner retires at 65 instead of 55, they could earn over £200,000 extra income and increase their pension pot by up to 60 per cent.

In recent months, numerous employers have written to tell me what they are doing to break down the age barriers, including committing to mid-life career reviews for their workforce, and providing advice to line-managers on even how to support their female staff during the menopause.

And there are many more areas that employers are exploring, such as how to support older employees who may have caring responsibilities.

Flexible working, which, is well known to have benefts for young families, but there is more we can do to promote its use for older workers.

Action taken for older workers by the Government includes extending the right to request fexible working for all – and outlawing forced retirement.

A series of pilots exploring ways to help carers balance work with their caring responsibilities has been launched, which are to be completed in 2017.

And many mature people looking to keep working might beneft from fnding out about the New Enterprise Allowance which provides money and support to help you start your own business if you’re on certain benefts.

We also introduced an Older Claimant Champion in each of our seven Jobcentre Plus regions and our Work Coaches help older people build up skills and confdence.

Support includes tailoring local digital training provision, helping to raise self-esteem amongst older jobseekers and working with local employers who are looking to recruit new staff.

Overcoming ageism and other barriers to encourage fuller working lives remains a priority for me. Nowadays, being over 50 does not necessarily mean you will soon stop work.

Employers who harness the talent, dedication, loyalty and enthusiasm of the over 50s will reap signifcant benefts in future.

Retaining, retraining and recruiting older staff can help everyone - it is good for us, our economy and our nation’s success.

Baroness Altmann, CBE is a British peer, leading UK pensions expert, and political campaigner.

She was appointed to the House of Lords following the 2015 general election as a Conservative, but describes her work both before and after the election as being politically independent, championing ordinary people and social justice. Altmann was strongly opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 EU membership referendum.