Government Departments At Odds On Retirement Ages

Virtually all Government Departments appear to have embraced the Pensions Green Paper recommendation that people should be able to work up to state pension age. Most civil servants are being allowed to work on to 65 if they want to, unless they are in senior grades, in which case they can only stay on past 60 if it is deemed to be in the 'public interest' for them to carry on working.

There are two notable exceptions, the first is the Ministry of Defence which is insisting its civilian employees retire at 60 - even though it concedes it will have to change its policy once the age discrimination legislation comes into force in December 2006.

The second is the Cabinet office which is allowing employees to stay on to 70. Who - apart from Gordon Brown - said Tony Blair was planning on retiring early ?

Employers Speeding Up Recruitment Process

For anyone applying for jobs the length of time it normally takes to receive a response to an application is frustrating to say the least - assuming that is, that you receive a response at all. News that employers are trying to speed up their recruitment processes will therefore be welcomed by all job-seekers, whatever their age.

A new study in the IRS Employment Review of 250 employers shows that 7 out of 10 are dealing with applications faster than they used to. It reveals that the public sector is slower to fill vacancies than the private sector. Just under 50% of public sector organisations can manage to fill a vacancy in two to three months, whilst only 20% of private sector firms claim to take that long.

The survey found that public sector employers were the least likely to acknowledge job applications, but when they do they generally write back within one week.

The reason employers give for wanting to improve their recruitment times is that they are concerned good candidates are going elsewhere because they take too long to recruit staff.

Makes you wonder how many of them have tried dipping into the pool of over 50s talent that'scurrently too often untapped.

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Week Starting 14th April

Did you know ? - 'Older People' Statistical Information Update

Just over 18.8 million people are aged 50 and over, of these 8.7 million are aged between 50 and State Pension Age (SPA) and account for 19% of the adult population.

Just under 6.9 million of people aged over 50 are in employment. This is an increase since Autumn 2001, with the gap between all-working age average narrowing from 6.6 to 6.2 percentage points.

Self-employment is more common amongst older workers compared to the younger age groups. 24% of those in employment past SPA, and 16% of the 50 to SPA age group are self employed, compared to 11% of the 25 to 49 age group and 3% of those aged 16 to 25.

Older workers have longer average time in their current employment than the younger age groups. 12.6 years for the 50 to SPA age group and 14.6 years for those over SPA, compared to 7 years for the 25 to 49 age group.

Older people are much more likely to be long term unemployed: 37% of the unemployed 50 to SPA age group have been unemployed for over a year, compared to 23% of the 25 to 49 age group and 10% of the 16 to 25 age group. All of these rates show a reduction compared to Autumn 2001.

Item courtesy of the Age Positive Website (www.agepositive.gov.uk)

Employment Numbers Defy Gravity

The latest employment figures show that there are 234,000 more people with jobs than a year ago. The total number of people in work (27,811,000) is at record levels whilst the ILO number for unemployment (1.5 million) remains at 5.1%. The number of benefit claimants rose by 1800 last month but remains essentially flat at 3.1%.

According to Nick Brown, Minister for Work, "Vacancies remain high - over 10,000 new jobs are notified to Jobcentres every working day and we know that many more are available from other sources. People are taking advantage of these opportunities to find work."

In the same week when the Institute of Directors' latest Business Opinion Survey revealed business optimism and company profitability has slumped during the first quarter, these latest Labour Market Statistics suggest that redundancies may now be falling back to the historically low levels of the late 1990s. Over the past year the redundancy rate per thousand employees has fallen by1.1 to 7.5 per thousand employees. This suggestion certainly seems to be flying in the face of all the headlines announcing job losses and may be
wishful thinking on the DWP's part.

Low Pay And Older Workers

Older women workers (aged 55 - 59) are more likely to be in lower paid jobs than any other age cohort over 21 years old. Circa 26% of women and 10% of men aged 55-59 are in jobs paying under £5 an hour according to the latest edition of Labour Market Trends. The figures for 50-54 year olds are 22% of women and 7% of men.

Sectors :

The research based on data gathered in Spring 2002, shows that the sector with the highest percentage of low paid jobs was 'hotels and restaurants' where just under 45% of the jobs were paying less than £5 an hour. Some 60% of women and 33% of men aged 55-59 in this sector were earning under £5 an hour. For the 50-54 age cohort the figures were 58% of women and 27% of men.

The next lowest paid sector was 'wholesale, retail and the motor trade' where the proportion was circa 28%; followed by 'agriculture, hunting and forestry' where the figure was just over 22%.

The sectors with the lowest proportion of low paid jobs were 'construction' at just over 3% and 'public administration and defence' with just under 5%.

Regions :

The regions with the highest percentage of low paid jobs were the North East at 6.7%, Northern Ireland with 6.1% and Yorkshire and the Humber with 6%. London had the fewest at just 2% of jobs paying under £5 an hour.

Part-Time Working & Low Pay :

The report also shows that overall, part-time jobs are about 5 times as likely to be low paid as full-time jobs. Women's jobs are 3 times as likely to be low paid as men's. This is explained by the fact that over 4 times as many women hold part-time jobs as men.

Comment :

As we have repeatedly pointed out, for many older workers labour market flexibility in the form of part-time working equates to low pay - hardly a recipe to allow people to save more by working longer.

Week Starting 7th April

TAEN Comment On The Budget.

The following are the main items relevant to our agenda (subject of course to fine print from the Government later);

Workforce Development and Skills:

An extension of the Employer Training Pilots which give government funding to employers who participate in the scheme. This covers costs of training and a subsidy of wages during time off for training. 1500 employers in 6 areas (Solihull, Derbyshire, Essex, Greater Manchester, Tyne and Wear and Wiltshire) have taken part with 5600 employees going into training. The scheme is being expanded to 6 new areas: East London, Berkshire, Kent, Leicester, Shropshire and South Yorkshire. The reaction of employer organisations is nervous because of fear that it is a step towards compulsion on training.

An expansion of the Union Leaning Fund to £14m. New arrangements to encourage the role of the Union Learning Representatives in the work place were included in the new Employment Act which came into force on April 6th. We shall do a fuller briefing.

Job seekers

More flexibility for Jobcentres in responding to local circumstances. This is building on the restructuring of Jobcentre Plus to give more autonomy to the 90+ District Offices with a reduction in central and regional direction.

Specifically, a discretionary fund to address local barriers which could be relevant to TAEN Members.

More flexibility in early starts in New Deals (before the end of the 6 months waiting period). More detail is needed on what this means in practice, but it looks like a step forward, depending on where you live.

Larger performance pay incentives for good Job Centre staff. This will build on the incentives system to increase the numbers of Benefit recipients who are not registered unemployed (the non-JSA) getting new jobs

An employment credit for lone parents returning to work of £40 a week for one year. This is an addition to the New Deal for Lone parents. Also new rules in the 2003 Employment Act on flexible working for parents were launched this week by the Prime Minister. This is all excellent. But why is it that the case of employment credits for lone parents has been accepted in the same week that the employment credit for the over 50s returning to work has been abolished? We recall the fact that there are as many working age adults with caring responsibilities as there are with parenting responsibilities for under 6 year olds.

Tougher signing-on requirements. Anyone signing on for 13 weeks or more will have to report weekly rather than fortnightly and apply for more jobs or risk loss of benefits.

Pressing ahead with Housing Benefit reform, which is very necessary (though the proof will be in the delivery) to make returning to work economically viable for those who are on it.

Enterprise

A series of measures to improve advise and finance for new enterprises via the Small Business Service, Business Links and the Enterprise Investment Scheme, although with a strong focus on schools and young people, such as more career advice in schools on enterprise.

What is not there:

Anything significant on either state or private Pensions and Savings, given that the consultation on the Green Paper has just closed and that the Government is committed to the introduction of means tested Pension Credit this year. However, a new target has been set for the Pension Credit to reach a minimum of 3 million pensioner households. This compares to estimates of about 5 million pensioner who will be eligible for the credit.

No news on Individual Learning Accounts which may form part of the new Skills Strategy to be published in June.

Nothing new on adult career guidance or recognition that the measures on workforce development, enterprise and return to work depend substantially on the growth of adult career guidance as a precondition for their success.

No extension of Modern Apprenticeships beyond age 25, although an emphasis on the target for 22 year olds in Apprenticeship.

Nothing yet on streamlining New Deals which is still in preparation.

Flexibility For All

At the start of the week in which parents of young or disabled children gained the right to request flexible working arrangements from their employers, the DTI has issued its Work-Life Balance Survey 2003 .

The survey conducted with 1200 workplaces and 2000 employees found :-

94% of employers agree that people will work best when they can strike a healthy balance between work and the rest of their lives.

91% of employers said there were no, or minimal costs involved in implementing their work-life balance practices.

81% of employers who have work-life balance practices in place reported a positive effect on employment,75% said they had a more motivated and committed workforce and 60% reported a reduced staff turnover as a result.

77% of employees who had requested flexible working had the request agreed to and 82% of employees who changed from full-time to part-time kept both the same job and the same level of authority.

So, if 9 out of 10 employers say it makes good business sense and costs them little or nothing, why shouldn't we be talking about flexible working for all ?

TAEN thinks flexible working is a key strategy for allowing more people to stay in work past 50 and up to and beyond state pension age if they wish. But the argument in favour of increased flexible working arrangements is essentially an all-age one. It is not only people with young children who have caring responsibilities or who may prefer to have a better work-life balance.

Opponents will cite added costs, difficulties with supervision and the need for businesses to be effectively manned during core operating hours. However, in an increasingly 24 x 7 world all the hours a business operates are regarded as 'core' by its customers. The truly customer-facing businesses (such as retail stores and service providers) would not be able to operate without embracing
and extending flexible working arrangements to all their employees.

Justifying the reason why the Government had legislated in this area, Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State at the DTI, said, " Thousands of businesses around the country already recognise that work-life balance policies can improve their business and help their staff. It could take 20 years for best practice to spread on its own. That's far too long to wait - for parents and for business."

Remember this argument in favour of legislation the next time the Government talks about introducing a voluntary code of practice !