Week Starting 29nd November

Government Finds Money For Pathways To Work Extension.

The Chancellor announced in his Pre Budget statement that an extra £220 million has been found to extend the Pathways To Work (Incapacity Benefit-to-work) scheme.

The full package announced includes:

• Extension of current Pathways to Work scheme to a third of the country, covering the most disadvantaged areas and local authority areas with the greatest concentration of incapacity benefit claimants, starting from October 2005. Including existing pilots, the total area covered has 900,000 incapacity benefit claimants.
• The seven existing Pathway to Work pilots will continue beyond 2006 and will increasingly provide support for more longer-term existing claimants through the Pathways approach.
• Additional funding of £30 million to ensure the continued success of the New Deal for Disabled People.
• By 2006 every Jobcentre Plus district will have specialist personal advisers to help people on incapacity benefits.
• Across the country all new incapacity benefit claimants will be required to attend a work focused interview after eight weeks of their claim from October 2005. It will also now be mandatory for them to complete an action plan to keep them in touch with work opportunities.
• New support to help people on Incapacity Benefit try out part-time working and self-employment through reform of the “permitted work” and test-trading rules.

Currently there are seven pilots – the first wave was launched in October 2003 (Renfrewshire, Derby and Bridgend) with a further four launched in the second wave in April 2004 (Essex, Gateshead and S. Tyneside, Somerset and E. Lancs).

The extension of the scheme will cover additionally the following Jobcentre Plus districts: Durham; Tees Valley; Lancashire West; Lanarkshire and East Dunbarton; Staffordshire; Barnsley and Rotherham (to be merged with Doncaster); Manchester (to be merged with Salford and Trafford); Cumbria; Greater Mersey; Liverpool (to be merged with Wirral); Eastern Valleys; Swansea Bay (to be merged with West Wales); Glasgow; and City of Sunderland.

Two weeks ago the DWP confessed to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee hearing that there was no money in their budget to fund a roll-out of the scheme (Links to previous item and press release on this subject)

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Improving the Labour Market For Ethnic Minorities

A year ago Tony Blair set up a special Task Force to deliver the first ever
cross-government ethnic minority employment strategy. In marking its first anniversary the Minister for Work, Jane Kennedy said although a lot of work had already been done, there was still more to do to realise the potential of people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The Task Force was set up to tackle such issues as lack of access to guidance and advice on training and employment, under-attainment at school and discrimination.
Although the ethnic minority employment gap is narrowing, it remains substantial - the employment rate for ethnic minorities is currently 59.4 per cent, compared to 74.9 per cent for the overall population. And ethnic minorities also earn less than their white counterparts.
The Government claims progress has already been made in a number of areas, including:

• The Department for Education and Skills’ Aiming High Strategy, which provides help for ethnic minority pupils, their teachers and their parents, representing a key step forward in improving the employability of ethnic minorities;
• The New Deal has helped more than 125,000 ethnic minority people into work;
• Ethnic minority outreach work with community organisations is finding innovative ways to connect ethnic minority people with jobs and received an additional £14m funding to do this.

TAEN’s Annual Conference in October looked at the multiple strands of discrimination which impact many over 50s from black and minority ethnic communities.

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South East Researchers Seeking Victims of Employment Ageism

Researchers at the University of Surrey in Guildford are looking for people living in the South East region who have experienced age-related difficulties in work - or when looking for work. They will be holding a focus group session in Guildford on Friday 10th December at 10.30 a.m. to explore the issues as part of a project called Dismantling Employment Barriers.

Travel expenses will be reimbursed and participants will be paid for their time.

For more information contact: Clare Humphreys on 01483 686162.

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Week Starting 22nd November

Stress Puts Years on You - Official

A report from the University of California suggests that stress makes you age faster. The research team studied young mothers, some of whom were caring for chronically ill children.

They found that high levels of stress had a major effect on immune systems making the subjects more vunerable to degenerative, usually age-related diseases.

The highest levels of stress studied led to immune cells displaying the equivalent of ten year's extra aging.

The team are continuing their research but so far are not intending to investigate whether a relaxed, stress-free lifestyle will make you younger. If they ever do, the queue for subjects starts here...

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Small Businesses Unaware of New Pension Laws

A worrying number of smaller businesses have no idea about impending changes to laws on pensions and age discrimination, according to a report from finance company AXA,

A survey of 200 firms found that almost half were unaware of changes in the Pensions Bill and how they would be affected. More than two-thirds said they knew nothing about anti-discrimination legislation coming into effect in two years, which will lead to flexible retirement ages.

The report said few small and medium sized companies (SMEs) had made changes to their employment structure ahead of the new law.

Steve Folkard, head of pensions marketing at AXA, said: "It is worrying that so few firms are aware of the forthcoming hanges to the Pensions Bill and the anti-discrimination laws.

"Both pieces of legislation will affect how SMEs structure their employee pension schemes and it is important that those that don't know about the changes take advice sooner rather than later."

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Week Starting 15th November

DWP Gets Easy Ride On Over 50s Employment

The Department of Work & Pensions received an easy ride from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this week.

No Paxmanesque grilling from MPs for either Sir Richard Mottram (DWP), David Anderson (JobcentrePlus) or Stephen Marston from the DfES when they appeared before the PAC’s hearing on the National Audit Office’s recent ‘Welfare to Work : Tackling the Barriers to Employment of Older People’ report.

Predictably the MPs wanted to know more about New Deal 50+, why so few people have heard of it and no proper evaluation has been done on it; what the effectiveness of the Government’s welfare-to-work measures have been in raising the employment rate for the over 50s; why so few employers seem aware of the AgePositive campaign and the voluntary Code of Practice on Age Diversity; and given the number of Departments involved how ‘joined-up’ the Government’s approach to tackling the barriers facing older workers have been.

However, two main themes kept emerging :-

1. Given that there are 1.3+ million over 50s stranded on Incapacity Benefit, what was being done to help them back into work ?
2. What impact would the axing of 30,000 jobs within DWP have on the Jobcentres’
   10,000 frontline Personal Advisers ?

In answer to the first, Sir Richard informed the PAC that the DWP has no money allocated to extend the new incapacity-to-work pilots (Pathways To Work) for the next few years. Early signs are encouraging but it is a resource-intensive programme and requires close working between JC+ Personal Advisers and their partner organisations – especially the NHS.

To the second Sir Richard refused to give a firm commitment on maintaining the current numbers of Personal Advisers but stated the job cuts were expected mainly in ‘backroom’ roles. However JC+ management are also looking to remove some of the Personal Advisers current workload – so that they could become more focused on the face-to-face aspects of their jobs.

The suggestion was made by Edward Leigh (the PAC’s Chairperson) that the name ‘Incapacity Benefit’ should be changed to something more appropriate and less ‘loaded’.

Click here to read TAEN’s Press Release

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Retirement Age Taskforce Fails to Reach Consensus

According to the Financial Times, the Retirement Age Taskforce failed to reach a consensus on the thorny issue of whether companies will still be able to set fixed retirement ages for their staff after October 2006.

The FT says the age lobby groups maintained their position that mandatory retirement ages should be scrapped whilst the employers stuck to their position that a default retirement age of 65 should be set, at least for now. However the CBI was said to have shifted its position marginally in accepting individuals should have the ‘right to request’ to work on past it. This would mirror the ‘right to request flexible working’ that was introduced for parents of young or disabled children.

The Government had hoped the Taskforce would come up with either a consensus or a compromise which would break the impasse over this issue. Now its back to Patricia Hewitt (Secretary of State at the DTI) and Alan Johnson (the new Secretary of State at the DWP) to come to a decision – although no doubt the occupants of both 10 and 11 Downing Street will want to have an input.

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Manufacturing Sector Gloomy About Job Prospects

Against the backdrop of a fall in general business confidence, some 22,000 jobs may be lost in the in the manufacturing sector over the next 3 months. According to the latest Regional Trends survey from the CBI/Experian, the expected job cuts will affect most regions. The largest fall - amounting to some 6000 jobs - is expected in the London and South East.

Week Starting 8th November

Business Demands Right To Set Retirement Age

Over a third of British businesses could be damaged if the Government decides to remove the right to set the retirement age of employees according to the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).

In a survey on retirement age of 1,200 businesses across all sectors, the BCC found that 36% of employers thought it was crucial to their business to retain the right to set a retirement age.

The figures have been released in advance of a meeting of the Government’s Taskforce on Age Discrimination. The Taskforce will discuss whether or not firms will be able to continue to set fixed retirement ages for their own staff, at what age that would be in future or whether to do away with fixed (a.k.a ‘mandatory’) retirement ages altogether. The BCC assert that having a fixed retirement age is essential for workforce management and planning purposes

Commenting on the results, British Chambers of Commerce Director General, David Frost, said:
“British businesses are facing an ever increasing number of diktats determining how to run their companies. Bosses need to be able to plan their workforce effectively to ensure they can remain competitive in the global economy.

"Having a retirement age is the best of both worlds - employers know when someone is due to retire but can still have the flexibility to agree with individual employees who want to work beyond that age."

“We are already seeing proposals to change maternity rights, use of temporary workers, how you dismiss someone, the list goes on. When will the Government and Europe realise that employers need to be trusted to run their businesses and look after their staff, rather than this constant interfering?”

The BCC has called for a mandatory retirement age of 65 but says individual employers should be able to define the end point of the employer-employee relationship. The BCC believes that the normal retirement age could be set at the same level as the State Pension Age, which over time could rise in line with a rise in the State Pension Age.

Click here for TAEN’s response

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Skill Shortages Damaging Profits in Hospitality and Tourism

Nearly a third of managers in the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sectors believe skills gaps are damaging their profits.

A survey of 5,800 employers in these sectors found that more than 12,000 job vacancies remained unfilled because their were too few candidates with the required skills – especially in customer care, communication and team-working. These are the very skill sets which ‘Age Positive’ employers say they find in older workers.

Of course, pay rates in parts of these sectors are notoriously low and that may also be having an impact on staff recruitment and retention.

Over 50s Employment Figures Stalled

The slow but steady increase in the number of people aged between 50 and state pension age (SPA) in work has stalled. Over the past 3 months it rose by just 1,000 to stand at 6.277 million and over the past year only went up by 32,000 in total.

The number of so-called ‘economically inactive’ people in this age group went up by 27,000 over the past 3 months and by 48,000 (nearly 2%) over the past year.

The employment rate for the 50-SPA group remains at 69.8%. This compares with 82% for those in the 35-49 year old bracket and 9.3% for those over SPA.

The figures are contained in Labour Market Trends : Nov 2004 - from the Office of National Statistics.

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Manufacturers Want Standard Retirement Age of 65

Two thirds of manufacturers want the Government to introduce a standard retirement age of 65 when it introduces the age discrimination legislation in October 2006. The remaining third either want the age to be set at 70 or no standard retirement age at all.

This result re-iterates what David Yeandle (Deputy Director of Employment Policy at the EEF) told delegates at last month’s TAEN conference.

The EEF/Aon Consulting survey of 525 companies of all sizes has been published to coincide with what is expected to be the last meeting of the Retirement Age Taskforce at the end of the week and is clearly intended to influence the outcome.

Other findings include :-

• 1 in 4 of the firms surveyed are already have some full-time employees over their company’s normal retirement age and nearly a third had some part-time employees over 65.
• Almost 90% of the firms surveyed want the state pension age to remain at 65 after 2020. Interestingly, this runs counter to the CBI’s push for the state pension age to be lifted to 70.
  

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Week Starting 1st November

Employers Complain of IT Skills Shortages

An estimated 15,000 UK businesses are facing difficulties filling their IT vacancies according to a report from the E-Skills sector skills council. They found that a third of employers with IT vacancies have had trouble finding people to fill them.

Three quarters of these firms said they had to delay new products and services because of a lack of suitable IT staff. Over 40% have incurred increases in operating costs and 22% had lost business to competitors.

One solution would be to change their recruitment habits and seriously consider the many IT professionals aged over 45 who struggle to find and keep jobs because they are considered too old…

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Pension Credit Now A ‘Qualifying Benefit’

In order to be eligible for help under New Deal 50+, individuals have to be on ‘qualifying benefits’ for 6 months. Benefits such as Jobseekers Allowance and Incapacity Benefit are classified as ‘qualifying benefits’, others such as the Basic State Pension and the new Pension Credit are classified as ‘non-qualifying benefits’. So their recipients have not been able to access the New Deal 50+ programme.

That has now partially changed. Following a review, Pension Credit will become a qualifying benefit. This means that men and women aged over 60 who are receiving it for more than 6 months can now volunteer for New Deal 50+.

Jobcentre Plus say this change removes the existence of upper age limits from all their programmes and services. However, they are not expecting to be knocked over in the rush - estimating only 2,600 people over 60 will sign up for New Deal 50+ in the first year.

Meanwhile TAEN continues to press for the 6 month eligibility rule to be scrapped.

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Age Discrimination Getting Worse

A survey commissioned by Age Concern, has found 1 in 3 of the 850 people questioned think age discrimination is worse now than it was five years ago.
And in spite of age discrimination legislation being implemented in 2 years time, three quarters of those surveyed do not think age discrimination will lessen over the next 5 years - in fact 28% thought it was likely to get worse.

A spokesperson for Age Concern commented, “Ageism is the last form of legal discrimination. It is often invisible and endemic in our culture….Its time for the government to take action to give older people the rights and equality they need and deserve.”

One of the particular concerns of age lobbying groups is that the 2006 legislation will only apply to employment and vocational training - it will not cover goods and services. Therefore it will not address much of the age discrimination which is legal and institutionalised – such as companies who put upper age limits on travel, health and car insurance products. Or health programmes which people over 70 may have only limited access to – such as breast screening.

Age Concern’s survey was released to coincide with its first national billboard advertising campaign - ‘Ageism Exists’.

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What HR Professionals Think About Older Workers

Whilst Age Concern’s survey was carried out with members of the general public, the magazine Personnel Today commissioned NOP to carry out a poll with both HR professionals – as well as the general public – on the subjects of age discrimination and attitudes to older workers.

Over 9 out of 10 (91%) of the HR professionals surveyed believe age discrimination is widespread amongst UK companies. Given their unique insight into the personnel policies and practices of firms this is a deeply disturbing and disappointing figure. Amongst the public surveyed 61% thought age discrimination was widespread.

Nearly two thirds (65%) of the HR professionals disagreed that people over 65 are too old to do most jobs, whilst 73% of the public surveyed disagreed.

Other findings included:-

The survey was based on telephone interviews with 510 HR professionals and 999 adults aged 15+.

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