• “The employment trends for people over 50 are a good story in all sorts of ways – having gone up from an employment rate of 64% in 1994 to 70% this year. But there is still an 11% gap with the employment rate of 25-49 year olds.”
  
  
• “There are good sides and bad sides to the present situation. On the one hand there is the positive experience where (older) people have choice in terms of work, have adequate savings, variety, participate in learning, have – generally speaking – good health and a sense of well-being.”
  
  
• “But there is the other side, the negative experience of people having to work out of necessity, with no choice or variety, who have inadequate, or no, savings, have poor health and do not engage in learning."
  
  
• "This polarisation increases with age.”

• The quality of work available to older workers and the sort of work they’re looking for. How we ensure opportunities and job satisfaction, rather than older workers being seen as a source of cheap labour ? (John Philpott – CIPD).
  
  
• Employability……how we can develop and sustain it , whether people are in or out of work ? The importance of access to training and the role of advice & guidance throughout adult working life. (Dr Wendy Hirsh – Institute of Employment Studies, Brighton; Bob Lyall - BMW and Gareth Dent – learnDirect)
  
  
• Health is an increasingly important theme in extending working lives.(Prof Jill Manthorpe – Kings College, London)
  
  
• The barriers to working longer and the age legislation in helping to address those barriers. (Gaby Charing – the Law Society; Mike Palmer – HSBC; Charles Fuller – DTI)
  
  
• The savings and pensions theme.(Alan Pickering – Watson Wyatt) "

• “The employment statistics are very optimistic. If you look at the statistics its difficult to understand why people are gloomy. The growth in employment over the past 8 years has been consistent. "
  
  
• "We now have the best employment rate, and the second lowest unemployment rate amongst the G8 countries."
  
  
• "We have got rid of the scourge of youth unemployment, we have really got a very firm control on long-term unemployment and this enables us to now look at all those groups who have been traditionally excluded from employment."
  
  
• "….the implications of our aspirational 80% employment rate mean getting 1 million more older workers into work, 1 million people off Incapacity benefit and 300,000 lone parents into work.”
  
  
• "What we need to do as a Government is to provide better opportunities for training older workers and better opportunities and possibilities for working longer."
  
  
• "Individuals need to take greater responsibility both in regard to work and in planning their own future retirement.”
  

Sandy Wilson:

• “ Norwich Union has identified that a deeper understanding of people’s attitudes to working longer is required if they are to be convinced that a longer working life is an acceptable response to the rise in life expectancy."
  
  
• "‘Personal choice’ was identified as one of the major factors in the decision when to retire – and this influence must be included in any debate around finding ways to both encourage and enable the public to extend their working life.”
  
  
• "……The retirement age debate within the financial services industry must look beyond whether the State Pension age should be increased, it must find ways to make people feel they they have the choice to extend their working life on their terms.”
  
  
• "Employers can make a difference in encouraging people to work longer. Measures include trying to remove barriers, whether they are perceived or real, by making people want to stay in employment longer because they still gain job satisfaction and by promoting a culture within the company that embraces and values the knowledge and expertise of older workers."

Panel discussion on the Draft Age Regulations:

• “The legislation will have a massive symbolic effect.”
  
  
• “The regulations are complicated. And the consequence of the policy decision on the introduction of the Default Retirement Age just complicates the whole issue. It has given rise to the ‘right to request’ to work on past retirement, which we believe and have said, is ‘ill thought out’."
  
  
• "In practice an employer won’t be able to say ‘yes’ across the board (to such requests) and won’t be able to say ‘no’ across the board either, because each request has to be considered in ‘good faith’…. It will leave them open to possible employment tribunal claims from those they turn down.” (Gaby Charing)
  
  
• “I’d be surprised if as many as 1 in 5 employers have begun to prepare (for the age regulations), I believe that’s probably an optimistic picture….I’ve been saying all along that employers need 2 years to prepare because the regulations will effect nearly every HR policy and procedure a company may have.”
  
  
• "With less than a year until the legislation comes into effect, my advice is that companies can’t afford to wait to begin their preparations.”
  
  
• “My view is that the Default Retirement Age will go in 2011 when the regulations are reviewed.” (Mike Palmer)
  
  
• “Some say that when it comes to the proposed age legislation the glass is half full, some say its half empty. My view is its just about right.”
  
  
• “We’re looking in the (Coming of Age) consultation for answers to 3 main questions: do they (the draft regulations) cause any practical difficulties ? How clear are the explanations ? And for comments on the clarity of the regulations.” (Charles Fuller)
  

Alan Pickering:
Speaking on Longer Working Lives and Saving for Retirement

• “We’re living longer – never has such a good news story got such bad press.”
  
  
• “You can’t modernise the pension system in Britain without modernising the world of work.”
  
  
• “We cannot save our way through the demographic challenges.”
  
  
• “ What society needs is access to lifetime learning because that gives access to lifetime earning.”
  
  
• “An older worker needs a job – not a pension.”
  
  
• “Its silly that we build a state pension system built on date of birth rather than the expected date of death.”
  
  
• “Working longer does not necessarily mean working longer in the same job or at the same level of intensity. None of us are one-dimensional. Provided we have continued access to learning, there is no reason why new earning opportunities will not become available later in life.”
  
  
• “As we get older we should have the opportunity to mix and match work and retirement, pay and pension. Hitherto, the pension system itself has mitigated against this benign parallel existence. But things are changing. The pension system can be the solution, not the problem.”