Recent items from PRIME Business Club
The PRIME Initiative provides free information, events and training to help older people get back into work by starting their own business - also known as “becoming self-employed”.
PRIME has another web site at www.primebusinessclub.com that provides practical information and guidance to such “olderpreneurs”. Meanwhile this site here is for those seeking background on the charity itself, its work and campaigns - including potential supporters.
The charity’s activities are needed because the over-50s face huge problems of unemployment and age discrimination in the conventional job market. HRH The Prince of Wales recognised this huge labour-market failure - which is common to all developed countries, when he founded PRIME (the Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise).
In the UK almost one person in three aged between 50 and state pension age is workless. Of these less than 10 per cent are retired on adequate incomes. The remaining 90 per cent are on incapacity benefit, registered unemployed, caring, made redundant or retired with an inadequate pension.
PRIME was set up to assist older entrepreneurs across the whole of the UK. It is currently active on the ground in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Wales it works through PRIME Cymru, PRIME’s sister organisation, with whom PRIME works closely under our joint President, Prince Charles.
PRIME’s work with olderpreneurs complements the Prince’s other enterprise charities, which are more associated with youth.
PRIME seeks to help anyone aged over 50 in the UK who wants to start their own business or set up a social enterprise with other people. It can only provide the vital work of giving people back their financial independence, self-reliance and dignity with your support, help and donations. For details of how you can help, see Support us.
You can get a feel for the work of PRIME by reading the articles and blogs on this web site. To find specific items use the search box at top right, or to see the most recent items go to News. There’s more about the charity itself under About.
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Buried away in the detail of the Chancellor’s budget report is notice of the end of a very valuable incentive for those struggling to work their way off benefit. From April 2012, the 50-plus element will be removed from Working Tax Credit. This means PRIME clients won’t be able to get it any more. This could [...]
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I grew up in a household where every time someone complained about something, my father said “Well why don’t you do something about it?”. The “it” in the question was usually something as minor as third-world poverty or nuclear disarmament.
So having worked as a supplier in the business support sector for the last 18 years, [...]
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More details are emerging of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition’s policy on issues that affect employment creation and the encouragement of new businesses. Here’s a round-up based on what’s been said in important ministerial statements today. I also include some words said before the election by the winning side that still seem to be relevant.
The official [...]
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The House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee has been looking at contracted employment programmes - the sort of thing people are sent on by Jobcentre Plus after they have been out of work for a while.
Jobcentre itself does not actually run these programmes, but instead contracts them out to mainly private providers. The bulk [...]
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Joblessness among the over-50s rose by 14,000 to 398,000 in the three months to January, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show.
This is on the official unemployment count. The official count includes only those out of work who are claiming Jobseekers Allowance, making it fairly inaccurate for both younger and older [...]
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PRIME, the charity founded by Prince Charles to help people over the age of 50 across the UK to get back into work by starting their own businesses, has appointed Richard Martin as Chairman Designate. He will take over from the existing Chair Pauline Norton in the summer.
Pauline says “I am delighted that Richard will [...]
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Plans to deal with pension shortfalls by encouraging people to work for longer received a dash of cold water today. Three-quarters of us could be too ill to work, Professor Sir Michael Marmot of University College London warns in a new report.
All but the richest Britons suffer years of ill health. People in [...]
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In all the events and reports on worklessness that have come out over the last couple of weeks youth unemployment is always the central theme. But the evidence on youth unemployment is a bit like jelly - bright and brash on the surface, but 95 per cent water. You can’t use it to support anything. [...]
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If you’ve started your own business or have become self-employed after the age of 50, here’s a chance to get some free publicity. We’d like to hear from you. We’re looking for stories to put up on the case-studies section of this web site.
There are two ways of entering. If you use Microsoft Word just [...]
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Influential voices are calling for the current “default retirement age” of 65 to be scrapped. The latest call comes from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which has said that workers should be able to stay in their jobs beyond the age of 65. The EHRC polled 1,500 workers, and found that a relaxation [...]
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Over 300 delegates from older people’s organisations poured into the Scottish Parliament at the bottom of The Royal Mile in Edinburgh on Friday 2nd October. This was the first Older People’s Assembly in Scotland of this size, and is certainly more than England, Wales and Northern Ireland have produced. There are a range of forums, [...]
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The Guardian has published a long piece called “Starting a business - what the over-50s need to know“. Businesses started by people in their 50s are more likely to succeed than those begun by 20- or 30-somethings, it says, and author Patrick Collinson goes on to interview some examples of olderpreneurs.
PRIME’s free roadshow [...]
