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Enterprise and Culture Committee, 16 Jan 2007

16 Jan 2007 · S2 · Enterprise and Culture Committee

Item of business

“Growing older and wiser together—A futures view on positive ageing”

David Manion: Watch on SPTV

I would like to say something about future costs. If we do not do something, the costs will be even worse, and it is the cost of not doing something that we should be most concerned about.I draw your attention to page 14 of the report, where there is a quotation from Professor Mike Danson. He says that"age discrimination against older workers appears deeply embedded in the cultures, policies and practices of some organisations and industries."I would like to talk a little about what that means in practice for a great many older people now, and what it might mean in the future. According to research that we have undertaken, and according to research by the Department for Work and Pensions back in 2001, nine out of 10 people between the age of 50 and state pension age thought that they were likely to be discriminated against on the ground of their age while in employment. Research from Age Concern demonstrates that age discrimination is the form of discrimination experienced by more people in the United Kingdom than any other, and it comes to its peak in the employment field, which is presumably why there has been legislation on discrimination in employment. What will happen to people over 50 is an extremely important issue. Some figures for the levels of economic inactivity in various areas of Scotland for those aged between 50 and 64 will give you an inkling of what I am talking about. In Glasgow, the level of economic inactivity for people in that age group is 42.3 per cent. In East Ayrshire it is 37.6 per cent, in Inverclyde it is 36.2 per cent, and in North Lanarkshire it is 38.6 per cent. That does not include those who are officially registered as unemployed. We are talking about large numbers of people over the age of 50 who may have left the employment market for one reason or another and who have been unable to re-enter it. If practical things are to be done, we ought perhaps to be looking at how we can give those people intensive help to re-enter the labour market, and how we can plan to enable that group of people between the ages of 50 and 64 to start up their own businesses. People over the age of 50 are some eight times more likely to succeed in small and medium-sized enterprises. When people are made redundant and they try to re-enter the employment market, they need to rebuild their confidence, and starting up their own business gives them flexibility in their employment that they might not have otherwise.There is a correlation between the attitudes that we display to the employment of older people and how we plan to employ older people in the future. If we express positive attitudes now, people will not end up in the situation in which the over-50s find themselves at present. More support will be given to that age cohort and they will have a rosier future. That relates to the costs that we will face if we do not act now. Of people who come out of employment when they are over 50, only one in 10 will get back into the labour market. If we do not start to act on that now, I dread to think what the cost will be.Scottish Enterprise and the associated agencies should be asked what they are doing proactively to help people who are aged between 50 and the state pension age to get back into the labour market.

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Enterprise and Culture Committee, 16 Jan 2007

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