Will
70 be the new 50?
We’re
all cheering here at laterlife. The
government, at long last, has promised to catch
up on age discrimination, and proposes that we can retire
when we choose to. Employers who place unjustifiable age limits in their advertisements
will be subject to the law in the same way as those who discriminate against sex and race.
About time too. The new proposals will bring the UK
in line with
an EU directive which is
appropriate to 21st century living. We are living longer, staying fitter. We know that we are not past it at fifty or sixty or
seventy, and it’s about time that everyone else knows it too.
Not everyone’s happy. The unions fear that people will be forced to work
till seventy in order to qualify for a state pension. Businesses
fear that they will suffer unfair claims against dismissal. And
though it’s definitely not politically correct to say so (which is why no group has
done it), there’s the fear that older people will be keeping the best jobs for
themselves, holding back the younger generation. One
way and another, ageism is alive and well in our society.
But the fears may be well off
the mark. The US has had age discrimination laws since 1967 without catastrophe. The
majority still take retirement in their sixties. When
workers were encouraged to take early retirement in the UK in the 1980s, the situation did
not create new work for the younger unemployed. Jobs done by older workers aren’t
necessarily ones attracting younger people, and opportunities for the young emerge in
different ways in the labour market.
In any case, older people,
like working mothers, have their own agenda, and it’s not the 9 to 5 job. An NOP
survey commissioned by Help the Aged, shows the following:
seven out of ten people (70%) who are
currently working would be interested in staying on in their current job if flexible or
shorter working hours were available.
Among employed
people in their late fifties and early sixties, an even higher number– 78 per cent
– said they’d like to work part-time in retirement.
Nearly half (47%)
would work longer if support or training was
provided to help them change jobs.
And over half (56%)
said they would be interested in an offer of a lump
sum payment of £20,000 if they deferred drawing their state pension until the age of 70.
So
there’s the challenge. If this all
works out, we will be able to choose to work longer, for shorter hours. We will continue to pay taxes, contribute our
skills, show the world that we do, most certainly have them, and postpone drawing
pensions.
It’s a big step towards
ridding ourselves of ageist attitudes, though there are plenty more to go.
Talkback is a regular
feature in laterlife.com run by journalist and author Helen Franks. 
