The Government have failed – it’s time for a new approach to get older people into the workplace

This post is written by Rachel Reeves MP and Stephen Timms MP.

Later today we will be meeting older workers in West London to listen to the challenges they’ve faced in finding a job. Despite the skills and experience they bring far too many older workers are finding it impossible to get a job. And last month we learnt nearly 45,000 people who are over 50 have been unemployed for over two years. Not two weeks, not two months, but two long years without a job.

To David Cameron and George Osborne that’s a fact of life. But to Labour that represents a huge waste of talent, potential and money. It’s another example of Tory Welfare Waste.

Older workers get little or no support from David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s government.

Their flagship Work Programme isn’t working. Just 13 per cent of people aged 55 to 59 and only seven per cent of people aged over 60 have found a lasting job through the Work Programme. On any measure the Work Programme is a complete failure.

Thousands of older self-employed workers struggle to save for a pension. And 600,000 self-employed workers face a huge and completely unnecessary increase in red tape as a result of new Universal Credit rules.

In Government, Labour introduced the New Deal for Over 50s, a voluntary scheme which gave extra help to people seeking employment who considered their age could be a disadvantage. Participants were assigned a personal adviser. But today, there is no specialist help.

It’s time for a new approach to get older people into the workplace, rather than abandoning them to years on the dole.

Today we are unveiling our five point plan designed to treat older workers with the dignity and respect they deserve. Labour will;

1. Introduce a Compulsory Jobs Guarantee to ensure older jobseekers who have been unemployed for over two years are guaranteed the offer of a paid job which they’d have to take or risk losing their benefits. New figures from the House of Commons library have shown 68,000 over 50s would benefit from Labour’s Compulsory Jobs Guarantee in the first year of a Labour government.

2. Reform the failing Work Programme. Labour will devolve the Work Programme to make it more responsive to the needs of older people in different areas of the country.

3. Help more older workers save for a pension. With the latest figures showing less than a third of self-employed workers saving into a pension and with more workers going self-employed, Labour will act to ensure more older self-employed workers  are able to save for a pension.

4. Cut red tape for older workers who are self-employed. New Universal Credit rules threaten 600,000 self-employed workers with a huge increase in red tape. Labour is committed to cutting this unnecessary bureaucracy.

5. Introduce a higher rate of Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) to those who have contributed over years. This would be fully funded by extending the length of time people need to have worked to qualify.

These bold measures will make a real difference to thousands of older people. We can’t afford not to act. Long-term unemployment comes at a huge cost for older workers, a huge cost for their families and a huge cost for taxpayers. It’s more Tory Welfare Waste that Britain can’t afford.

The challenges are clear: the UK has an ageing population; thousands of older people out of work and lamentably bad back to work provision that is not meeting the needs of older people. We need a serious strategy that values older workers, and delivers the means to keep them in work. Not least because the economy is clearly going to need their contribution, and can’t afford the loss of their experience and expertise. This is an issue that will become critically important in the years ahead.

We will not abandon the over 50’s to the tragic waste of long-term unemployment. Because we care passionately about tackling unemployment for young and old jobseekers we will take action to get people off benefits and into work. That’s what One Nation Labour means. A country where no-one is left behind.

Rachel Reeves is Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Rt Hon Stephen Timms is the Shadow Minister for Employment.