Employment: Elderly

Work and Pensions written question – answered at on 12 March 2010.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Nigel Waterson Nigel Waterson Shadow Minister, Work and Pensions

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people aged over 60 years and actively seeking work found employment in the last 12 month period for which figures are available; and what proportion of the number of those actively seeking work this represented.

Photo of Jim Knight Jim Knight Minister of State (the South West), Regional Affairs, Minister of State (the South West), Department for Work and Pensions, Minister of State (Regional Affairs) (South West), The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions

The information is in the table.

Number of people age 60 and over who have found work in the last 12 months and as a proportion of total jobseeker's allowance claimants age 60 and over
Found work Increases work to 16+ hours/week Total Claimant count Proportion (Percentage)
2008
December 950 20 970 12,990 7.5
2009
January 610 25 635 15,925 4.0
February 1,445 45 1,490 18,195 8.2
March 1,410 40 1,450 19,300 7.5
April 1,495 35 1,530 20,170 7.6
May 1,765 50 1,815 20,240 9.0
June 1,535 40 1,575 19,670 8.0
July 1,525 35 1,560 19,300 8.1
August 1,735 25 1,760 19,020 9.3
September 1,495 35 1,530 18,230 8.4
October 1,450 15 1,465 17,925 8.2
November 1,800 40 1,840 17,780 10.3
Notes: 1. Data is rounded to the nearest five; and percentages to one decimal place. Claimant count information is published on the Nomis website at: www.nomisweb.co.uk

2. The percentage of people leaving with an unknown destination recorded has increased over the last 10 years. This is because the completion levels of the JSA40 (forms filled in by people leaving jobseeker's allowance) have decreased over this period. Many of these "unknown" leavers will have moved into employment or other benefits. Source: Count of unemployment-related benefits, Jobcentre Plus computer systems (computer held cases only).

Older workers who fail to get back into employment and become long term unemployed face a significant risk of not being in a position to take advantage of the upturn. In response, the Government have already made available £0.5 billion additional support to help prevent people out of work from becoming long-term unemployed. In addition to rolling out Flexible New Deal, which is providing support tailored to meet the individual needs of jobseekers of all ages, we have doubled the resources available to help people facing redundancy, have introduced a financial incentive for employers who recruit people out of work for six months or more, and have introduced extra funding for training places.

The measures in the new Employment White Paper, "Building Britain's Recovery: Achieving Full Employment" (Cm 7751), will strengthen specific areas where we know there is a case for dong something extra for people over 50. These measures, which will be delivered from spring 2010, include:

Additional time and training for Jobcentre Plus Advisers;

New specialist back to work support for the over 50s;

Widening access for over 50s to work trials;

Enabling people over 50 with significant barriers to employment to get early access to the Six Month Offer; and

A new National Guidance Initiative to encourage and help employers to adopt flexible approaches to work and retirement.

Does this answer the above question?

Yes0 people think so

No0 people think not

Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.