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Ageism and the Six Pillars of the 50+ Employment Commitment: Part Two

Pillar Five  

Pillar Five is to consider introducing paid or extended unpaid carers’ leave and a full right to flexible working from day one.   

This feels like a double-edged sword to me.  We know that the 50 to 64-year-old age group already provides more caring than any other age group.  We recognise increased pressure for carers to require leave both as parents and for parents.  The current challenge is that there is no framework for the unpaid caring of older relatives.  Unpaid care provides extraordinary social and economic benefits to the community at large.  We want to avoid ending up where statutory care is the only state response to caring needs.  We already see increasing demand for childcare, where statutory care is becoming the default over parental care.  The track record of statutory care for adults could be more impressive.   

How can we ensure that flexibility is provided for carers’ leave?  For example, could paid carers’ leave operate similarly to sick pay, with sick pay rights as an employer extending to carers’ leave?   

Could there be a requirement to offer unpaid carers leave in the same way as maternity leave?  Maternity leave is not all fully paid.   

Is there a need to incorporate flexible working into job ads for employers of a specific size, where flexible, part-time and job share options are always offered, and discriminating based on those becomes as illegal as discriminating based on age, sex, race, etc.?   

Pillar Six 

Pillar Six demands that before the state pension age reaches 67, there is a review of DWP’s employment and benefits approach for everyone in their 60s, recognising that retirement has fundamentally changed over the last 20 years.   

Nearly a quarter of those aged 60 to 65 live in poverty, 1.4 million people today, the highest poverty rate of any adult age group.  Some of them will never return to the labour market, but there are growing numbers of people over the state pension age working.  Often, the days of cliff-edge retirement—from full-time to no work—are over.  Transitions are becoming even more diverse and complex, yet DWP’s employment and benefits approach fails to recognise this.  In fact, as an employer, the government often fails to recognise this.  For example, if you are in the NHS and you retire and want to take your pension, you lose your pension entitlement if you return to work in the NHS.  What kind of craziness is that?   

A comprehensive review is needed to ensure employment support for those beyond state pension age who want and need to work and sufficient financial support for those unable to work due to ill health or caring responsibilities.   

So, in this challenge to the government to sign up for the 50-plus employment commitment, you can see six major pillars of change.   

Fundamentally, all of these pillars of change will rely upon the collaboration and commitment of employers, supported by a change in government policy, their commitment to awareness and guidance, and finally, a coherent employment and benefits system designed to help people from their 60s and beyond.   

Charles McLachlan is the founder of FuturePerfect and on a mission to transform the future of work and business. The Portfolio Executive programme is a new initiative to help executives build a sustainable and impactful second-half-career. Creating an alternative future takes imagination, design, organisation and many other thinking skills. Charles is happy to lend them to you.