The Government money will be spent on new measures to help thousands of people who are over 50 and out of work. Jobseekers will receive more one-to-one support to help them back into work before they retire.
One in 10 over 50s have disappeared from the workforce in the past five years after being made redundant, according to research published by Legal & General Retail Retirement (LGRR) and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr).
Among the 177,000 over 50s made redundant every year, 20,000 are estimated to have left the workforce altogether.
Older workers are more likely to face redundancy than their younger peers and many found the pandemic particularly challenging when it came to finding a new job.
Now the DWP has announced a new package of support to help these older workers back into the workforce.
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The Centre for Ageing Better welcomed the news which they said would help older people who typically face more challenges than their younger counterparts.
Carole Easton, Chief Executive at the Centre for Ageing Better, said: “Seeing DWP continue to recognise the importance of a bespoke approach to older workers is really welcome.
“We know that older workers face unique challenges, such as ageism in the workplace and a possible gap in skills compared to some of their younger counterparts, so we will gladly support any tailored action that begins to chip away at these significant roadblocks standing in the way of older people accessing fulfilling work.”
It’s not just ageism that many older Britons find challenging – research shows that people over 50 are more likely to have caring responsibilities, with 12 percent of men and 16 percent of women aged 55 to 64 providing care to someone else.
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The £22million DWP support package includes:
- New measures to help a quarter of all jobseekers on benefits get back into work
- Multi-million package will increase Jobcentre support for over 50s including those thinking about retirement
- Long term unemployed will be referred to the multi-billion-pound Restart scheme which is already supporting a quarter of a million back into work.
More information can be found at Gov.uk.
