Impact of the recession on over 50s employment

Listen icon Listen to this item

Click to download PRIME briefing paper as PDF 295K

ABSTRACT This paper summarises the ways in which the recession has impacted on the older (50+) workforce, comparing ONS data for different age cohorts since August 2008 – the point where the UK was entering recession and marked differences in the impact on these age cohorts started to appear. The data is drawn from ONS Labour Market Statistical Bulletins from October 2008 to February 2010, which provides figures from August 2008 to January 2010.

Print this item Print this item Email This Post Email This Post

Posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Under: Campaigns and policy, PRIME blogs, PRIME reports, Peter Bennie, Research | No Comments »

PRIME Business Club Olderpreneur Newsletter for March 2010

Listen icon Listen to this item

Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 3:00 PM
——————————-
T h e O l d e r p r e n e u r
——————————-
News for older entrepreneurs from The PRIME Initiative

Welcome to PRIME Business Club’s March 2010 newsletter.

You are receiving this entirely free because you contacted PRIME, the charity set up by Prince Charles, about starting your own business.

——————————————————-
In this issue
——————————————————-
1. Get a FREE business check-up

2. FREE eight day course for over-45 Londoners

3. Could you become a PRIME online mentor?

4. Newsletter controls

——————————————————
1. Get a FREE business check-up
——————————————————
PRIME has teamed up with UK business set-up specialist Clever Gecko to offer our members a FREE health check for their businesses.

Business Doctor is predominately aimed at those people who have already started and would just like some advice on how they are doing. The check-up will give you an opportunity to discuss any concerns you may have but also for the Doctor to highlight issues that may not be obvious to you.

If you are still just contemplating starting your own business then Business Doctor can still help by assessing your business idea for viability

To find out more and to take up the offer go to:
www.primebusinessclub.co.uk/category/offers/

——————————————————-
2. FREE eight day course for over-45 Londoners
——————————————————-
The Centre for Micro Enterprise, a unit within London Metropolitan University has funding to support a small number of people over the age of 45 who want to go self-employed.

Places on the course will be offered on a first come-first served basis. You must have a London postcode to be eligible.

They are offering an eight day programme delivered one day a week over eight weeks. The course is designed to help you to develop your skills to enable you to set up your own business

To find out more go to:
www.primebusinessclub.co.uk/2010/02/26/free-eight-day-course-over-45-londoners/

——————————————————-
3. Could you become a PRIME online mentor?
——————————————————-
Have you already experienced the challenge of setting up your own business? Would you be prepared to share your experience as a PRIME mentor?

Mentoring online can be the perfect way to share your hard earned wisdom with those who can benefit from your experience and knowledge, all in an interesting online environment.

To find out more go to: www.primebusinessclub.co.uk/category/volunteer/

——————————————————-
4. Newsletter controls
——————————————————-
This email was sent by prime@ace.org.uk. To no longer receive our emails, just
send an email to prime@ace.org.ukwith
UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

To ensure that you continue to receive emails from us, add prime@ace.org.ukto your email program’s
address book to make certain they aren’t blocked.

Copyright (c) 2010, The PRIME Initiative
Astral House, 1268 London Road, London SW16 4ER

Print this item Print this item Email This Post Email This Post

Posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010
Under: Announcements, Media | No Comments »

PRIME welcomes new Chairman

Listen icon Listen to this item

Richard Martin 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 be succeeding me as Chairman and believe he will lead the charity into its next exciting phase of development. Richard brings such a wealth of experience and contacts from the business, consulting and venture-capital worlds.”

Richard Martin started out on the London Stock Exchange before moving into marketing, working for the oil company Castrol and then the brewers Courage. Richard founded, grew and later sold his own consultancy business. He has since been involved with a series of start-ups in a variety of roles – investor, consultant and non-executive director.

Richard says “with the recession in full swing and the number of older unemployed people rising sharply, there is a greater need than ever for PRIME. My task is to ensure the charity continues to make a real impact on the problem and I look forward to building on the tremendous work carried out by Pauline and the PRIME team. But now we need to raise more money to support a growing number of over 50s move out of worklessness and into enterprise.”

PRIME (the Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise) is one of The Prince’s Charities, a group of twenty not-for-profit organisations of which HRH The Prince of Wales is President. PRIME offers a practical package of support for people who are over the age of 50 and out of work, including a Business Club and the Zopa-PRIME Olderpreneur Loan scheme.

The over 50s are particularly affected by unemployment and the recession, so setting up their own businesses is a vital way back into the labour market. In the UK as a whole some three million 50 to 65-year-olds have no paid employment, and the number is rising. The best thing anyone who finds themselves in this position can do is sign up for PRIME’s help at www.primebusinessclub.com.

“Over 50s who are out of paid employment for six months after being made redundant only stand a one-in-ten chance of being an employee again”, says Laurie South, Chief Executive of PRIME. “It’s never been more important to provide opportunities for over 50s who want to work.

“But opportunities are hard to come by at the moment. As a result many people are now seriously considering self-employment. New businesses started by the over 50s will be a big factor in the economic recovery”, says Laurie.


Notes to editors

1. Source of figures
The figures are derived from the Annual Population Survey and Labour Force Survey published by the Office of National Statistics, available at www.nomisweb.co.uk and from the PRIME report Olderpreneur Outcomes - more details here.

2. Interview Opportunities
PRIME’s Chief Executive Laurie South is available. Ring 0800 783 1904 to arrange a time.

3. What PRIME does
PRIME provides three levels of service, all delivered free to the unemployed people aged 50 and over who need them. At the first level there is “ Universal Offer” consisting of an information pack delivered by post, a web site with invaluable business content, and weekly (PRIME Business Update) and monthly (The Olderpreneur) email newsletters.

PRIME’s “Intermediate Offer”, available in selected parts of the UK, consists of PRIME’s own events and workshops plus seminars we deliver at other people’s events; a new mentoring scheme starting off in three cities (Bristol, Belfast and Newcastle); and an innovative Olderpreneur loan fund, available across the UK and delivered in conjunction with specialist on-line lender Zopa.com.

Finally the “Enhanced Offer” consists of a more intensive training and tailored one-to-one support. This is only available in the locations where PRIME is able to secure special funding. In 2009/10 PRIME had such funding in Sheffield (Sheffield City Council) and Doncaster (Doncaster Council), both in Yorkshire, in North-East Derbyshire (Department of Work and Pensions), and in the Black Country in the West Midlands (sponsored by Microsoft).

In 2009 PRIME gave practical advice and help to over 4,000 people who were thinking of starting there own businesses, and over 40 per cent achieved a successful business launch.

4. Further information
For more information about PRIME visit www.primebusinessclub.com
Media inquiries to Faye Banerjee or Ian Stobie via 0800 783 1904 or prime@ace.org.uk

The PRIME Initiative is a registered charity (No. 261794-2) linked to the National Council on Ageing and a company registered in England (No. 4184314). Registered address: Astral House, 1268 London Road, London SW16 4ER. President: HRH The Prince of Wales.

Print this item Print this item Email This Post Email This Post

Posted on Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Under: Announcements, Front page, Media | No Comments »

Reality check on work-till-you-drop retirement plans

Listen icon Listen to this item

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 the richest neighbourhoods in England live seven years longer than in the poorest, and enjoy an extra 17 years of good health.

Even if you exclude the poorest five per cent and the richest five per cent the gap in life expectancy between those in low and high income places is still six years, and in disability-free life expectancy 13 years.

Much more needs to be done to address health inequalities if raising the retirement age to 68 is really to mean people remaining active and working for longer, the report warns.

The report is not the work of some maverick outfit, but the final paper from the Marmot Commission - set up in 2008 at the request of the Secretary of State for Health. The Commission, chaired by Sir Michael Marmot, was tasked with finding the most effective strategies to reducing health inequalities in the country.

Fair Society, Healthy Lives (The Marmot Review)

Coverage at Times Online

Print this item Print this item Email This Post Email This Post

Posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Under: Campaigns and policy, Front page, Ian Stobie, PRIME blogs, Research | No Comments »

Unemployment is not a fight between the generations

Listen icon Listen to this item

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. Only Polly Toynbee writing in the Guardian seems to have noticed that there was considerably more youth unemployment in the 80s than there is now.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying we should take all the public and private money that is spent on youth schemes away. The two groups that suffer the most when unemployment rises are the young trying to get a start on the employment ladder and older workers trying to stay on it – or get back on. Both groups require help - it’s not an either or thing.

The belief that all our problems will be solved if we throw everything into helping youth is irrational. It doesn’t even help youth long term. If older workers can’t get a job who will be paying to support them in their impoverished retirement? Today’s youth, one way or another.

In fact the interests of young and old are closer than you might think in other ways too. For example, schemes to help them often have the same flaws. So understanding what actually works when it comes to practically assisting one group can often lead to better initiatives to help the other.

Take the Future Jobs Fund. It is a Department for Work and Pensions initiative designed to create 170,000 additional jobs, mainly for 18-24 year olds who have been out of work for nearly a year. It does seem to be providing some new opportunities, particularly in work experience and training places. But it’s too early to say how many of real long-term jobs will remain when the money runs out in March 2011.

Here’s the problem. The Future Jobs Fund depends on there being employers ready to take government money to create sustainable jobs for youth. But will there be enough employers wanting to hire in the midst of a recession? Even with the incentive currently being offered of up to £6,500 for each unemployed young ­person taken on?

We really need to increase the number of expanding employers. One way to do that would be to put more effort into enterprise support for people creating new businesses. For example the over 50s – people who have seen recessions before. People with the experience, skills and knowledge to build businesses with a good survival rate, even in tough times.

So let’s put aside the false distinctions and the factional fighting. It’s often older people who can help younger people. And the other way round too.

Having said that, I’d not say no to a Future Enterprise Fund for the over 50s, should some wise government set one up. The point is the jobs the new enterprises create would help not just their older owners, but all of society.

Print this item Print this item Email This Post Email This Post

Posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Under: Campaigns and policy, Front page, Laurie South, PRIME blogs | No Comments »

PRIME Business Club Olderpreneur Newsletter for February 2010

Listen icon Listen to this item

Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 4:23 PM

——————————
T h e O l d e r p r e n e u r
——————————
News for older entrepreneurs from The PRIME Initiative

Welcome to PRIME Business Club’s February 2010
newsletter. You are receiving this entirely free
because you contacted PRIME, the charity set up
by Prince Charles, about starting your own
business.

————–
In this issue
————–
1. Successful applicant gets Zopa-PRIME loan

2. Become a PRIME case study

3. Newsletter controls

———————————————
1. Successful applicant gets Zopa-PRIME loan
———————————————

Colin Bicknell, 50, from Northampton has
successfully secured a Zopa-PRIME loan of 7,120 pounds
at an interest rate of 7.88% to help start up
his energy assessment business.

PRIME has teamed up with Zopa Ltd and Bank of
America to create a peer-to-peer loan scheme to
help people aged over 50 to raise the capital to
start a business. The scheme is designed for
people over 50 who are finding it difficult to
raise money directly from a bank. It allows
someone to borrow anything from 1,000 up to
15,000 pounds - as long as they have a strong, viable
business plan.

To find out more about the scheme and to request
an information pack go to:

www.primebusinessclub.co.uk/loan-fund

To see Colin’s listing go to the Zopa website:
http://bit.ly/d3ZrSx

——————————
2. Become a PRIME case study
——————————
We are looking for people over 50 who have got a
successful business up and running - to be case
studies on our website. We would ask you a few
questions, and put your photograph, biography,
and a link to your business on our website.

If you would like the chance to be a PRIME case
study, please click on the link below and
complete the online application form.

www.primebusinessclub.co.uk/2010/01/29/te
ll-us-your-start-up-story-become-an-inspiration-
to-olderpreneurs

Good candidates will be confident and
charismatic, and we are particularly looking for
businesses of an unusual nature. The form gives
us a good idea of what you do, and what sort of
person you are, but don’t feel the need to write
lengthy replies. This will come later, if you
are selected for interview.

You can read case studies of fellow
Olderpreneurs here:

www.primebusinessclub.co.uk/category/prim
e-case-studies/

————————-
3. Newsletter controls
————————-
This email was sent by prime@ace.org.uk.
To no longer receive our emails, just
send an email to prime@ace.org.uk with
UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

To ensure that you continue to receive emails from
us, add prime@ace.org.uk to your email program’s address
book to make certain they aren’t blocked.
Copyright (c) 2010, The PRIME Initiative
Astral House, 1268 London Road, London SW16 4ER

Print this item Print this item Email This Post Email This Post

Posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010
Under: Announcements, Media | No Comments »

BBC Working Lunch showcases curry queen

Listen icon Listen to this item

Daksha Kumar, 65The BBC 2 programme talks to a woman who proves you don’t have to be young to be entrepreneurial. Daksha Kumar founded her own company in her late 50s and now, aged 65, is doing very well. PRIME’s Laurie South is also interviewed.

If you have missed the programme you can see it from Thursday at BBCiPlayer

Daksha has been in the news recently because Tesco is stocking her Indian convenience food.

Print this item Print this item Email This Post Email This Post

Posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
Under: Case studies, Media, People in the news | No Comments »

Forced retirement at 65 under attack

Listen icon Listen to this item

The number 65Influential 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 of the current rule would be welcomed by most. The House of Lords is likely to debate the issue today, as part of the debate on the Equality Bill, which is currently threading its way through parliament.

Currently employers have the legal right to force employees to retire at 65 - irrespective of whether or not the employee in question is still able to do the job. This was confirmed in a legal ruling in September of last year - but there were strings attached.

The High Court ruled that the default retirement age was not unlawful - but that there was now a compelling case for it to be scrapped. In practice this means that employers can still lawfully retire people against their will at the age of 65, for the time being. But the court wanted an urgent review of this provision.

The current Equality Bill does provide an opportunity to decide whether the default retirement age stays in place. The government has said it intends to get the bill passed before the general election this year. So there’s a chance here for the political parties to do more than make promises, but to actually vote on the issue.

Many organisations have already scrapped automatic retirement based on age, without waiting for a change in the law making them. They include Tesco, Marks & Spencer, HBOS, the Co-op Group and the Civil Service (for all but senior civil servants). An umbrella group called The Employers Forum on Age has been campaigning against forced retirement at 65 for several years.

However, Personnel Today magazine, which itself backs the campaign to scrap forced retirement, reports that some employers are still against changing the law, particularly now, in the middle of a recession. This is because it provides a useful mechanism for them to reduce staff numbers legally. Personnel Today quotes one HR director, who is against changing the lw, as saying “It’s useful to us now”.

Long term though forced retirement at 65 is likely to go. But this in itself won’t be enough to keep more people in work and earning. The jobs need to be there in the first place, for anyone of any age to do.

External links
Equality and Human Rights Commission summary of proposals

EHRC report (PDF) Working Better: The over 50s, the new work generation

Personnel Today on attitudes of HR chiefs pro and con

The Guardian Harman wants end to compulsory retirement age

Note:
The default retirement age and the state pension age are currently out of step. The default retirement age was set at 65 for both men and women in legislation that came into effect four years ago. Meanwhile women continue to be receive their state pension earlier than men, currently at age 60 while men have to wait till 65. But the plan is to harmonise the age for both sexes, increasing it in stages to 68 over time.

When will you get a state pension? Official State Pension Age calculator

Print this item Print this item Email This Post Email This Post

Posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010
Under: Campaigns and policy, Front page, Ian Stobie, PRIME blogs | No Comments »

Achieving Full Employment in 2010 - a New Year’s wish

Listen icon Listen to this item

Just before the Christmas break the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) launched its latest White Paper Building Britain’s Recovery - Achieving Full Employment. Straight after the break we have The Prince’s Trust YouGov Youth Index 2010 survey. This includes the claim, which is already well-established in the popular mind, that young people are hit hardest by the recession. It also forecasts that there is going to be a lost generation of youth.

The White Paper more positive - it is full of aspiration and is optimistic about the possibilities. The aspiration is for an 80 per cent employment rate - and hats off to that. There are plenty of well trailed policy initiatives in here for youth in the labour market, alongside some gently understated statistical reminders that the 16 to 25 unemployment data has been overblown. 

But for me the most under-rated possibilities are around the over 50s might achieve with a bit more backing.

Curiously the White Paper did not give a statistical analysis of the change in 50+ unemployment between this current recession and the last one back in the 90s. But it did give one for the 16 to 25 age group.

If the both older and younger age groups had been compared a contrast in their experience would have stood out. Things are better this time around for the 16 to 25 cohort, but worse in unemployment terms for those over 50.

There is a recognition in the White Paper that the over 50s are facing age discrimination. It also recognises that self-employment for those over 50 is very important for the labour market, and Jobcentre Plus needs to respond to this.

Pre-empting the launch of the White Paper by a month, every Jobcentre Plus in England and Scotland started displaying PRIME leaflets on 50+ self-employment and enterprise. And the response has been huge.

My New Year’s wish for 2010 is that our society will realise that a workless future is just as depressing for a 50 year old as for a twenty year old. The feeling of being rejected by society does not lesson with age; if anything it becomes since the prospect of your plight being recognised and any help arriving is worse.

Let us pray that White Papers are like white Christmases: that they make dreams become reality.

Print this item Print this item Email This Post Email This Post

Posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
Under: Front page, Laurie South, PRIME blogs | No Comments »

PRIME Business Club Olderpreneur Newsletter for January 2010

Listen icon Listen to this item

Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 5:58 PM

——————————————————-
T h e O l d e r p r e n e u r
——————————————————-
News for older entrepreneurs from The PRIME Initiative

Seasons Greetings. Welcome to PRIME Business Club’s
January 2010 newsletter. You are receiving this entirely
free because you contacted PRIME, the charity set up by
Prince Charles, about starting your own business.

——————————————————-
In this issue
——————————————————-
1. Create-your-own-web-site in the New Year

2. VAT is going up - try our calculator

3. Read older entrepreneur success stories

4. Loads of new business, accounting and tax info

5. Newsletter controls

——————————————————-
1. Create-your-own-web-site in the New Year
——————————————————-

The New Year is a great time to try something new.
So if you have not got a website yet, now is a good time
to start thinking about it.

PRIME has teamed up with UK web-site specialist Mr Site
to offer a discount of up to 40 per cent on the
company’s simple all-in-one web-site creation
packages.

Read on…

——————————————————-
2. VAT is going up - try our new calculator
——————————————————-

With the VAT rate going up to 17.5 per cent if your
business is VAT registered you will need to change your
published prices.

The government has announced that businesses have four
weeks to amend their shelf and product labels following
the reversion to the 17.5 per cent standard rate of VAT
at midnight on 31 December 2009.

Try our free online calculator.
Read on…

——————————————————-
3. Read older entrepreneur success stories
——————————————————-
We have put up new case studies on the PRIME website
where you can read about the experiences of other
olderpreneurs who have gone ahead and started a
business.

Read on…

——————————————————-
4. Loads of new business, accounting and tax info
——————————————————-

We have completed adding over 700 pages of detailed
information especially written by the accounting and tax
experts at Practice Web. This is all free at the PRIME
Business Club website.

Among these are:

The Business start-up area

The Tax system for the self-employed

Understand what your customers want

——————————————————-
5. Newsletter controls
——————————————————-
This email was sent by prime@ace.org.uk.
To no longer receive our emails, just
send an email to prime@ace.org.uk with
UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

To ensure that you continue to receive emails from
us, add prime@ace.org.uk to your email program’s address
book to make certain they aren’t blocked.
Copyright (c) 2009, The PRIME Initiative
Astral House, 1268 London Road, London SW16 4ER

Print this item Print this item Email This Post Email This Post

Posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009
Under: Announcements, Media | No Comments »

Is Entrepreneurship the new Mid-Life Crisis?

Listen icon Listen to this item

Here’s a short fascinating research study by the Kauffman Foundation, which funds many education and entrepreneurship programmes in the United States. It’s fascinating not least because US trends often end up happening here eventually.

According to the Foundation’s research it’s people in the 55 – 64 age group who are now responsible for the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity in the US. More surprisingly, the research also found that there were twice as many founders of technology companies over the age of 50 as under the age of 25. So even in hi-tech startups its the oldsters who are making the pace.

It is as if, the report mischievously points out, “Entrepreneurship is the New Mid-Life Crisis”.

So who is supporting and training these older entrepreneurs in the US? They are missing a direct equivalent of PRIME, which has always argued that we need to invest more here in providing free support, help and advice for potential entrepreneurs and especially for olderpreneurs.

But they do have a famously entrepreneurial culture and a more forgiving attitude to business failure, which may encourage more people to take a risk. The US also has one of the world’s longest-established and largest business mentoring programmes in the form of SCORE (originally the Service Corps of Retired Executives), and a government-funded business support service (the Small Business Administration) that goes right back to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s.

Like Ike and the US Congress at the time we believe that an investment in encouraging small businesses is quickly recouped as new businesses are established. It seems to us that the value added and return on investment in supporting enterprise is far greater than the returns on investing in employability.

And yet here in the UK we spend much more on employability schemes than on enterprise support, and vastly more on employability schemes for the over 50s into than on supporting older entrepreneurship.

But attitudes may at last be changing in the UK. SFEDI (the Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative) has long been an advocate of free universal enterprise support, but now it is being joined by an association of small business trade associations working together under the Genesis Initiative.

If we invested more in free universal enterprise support, we might not immediately overtake the United States when it comes to having a thriving small-business culture. But we’d certainly speed up the economic recovery.

Print this item Print this item Email This Post Email This Post

Posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009
Under: Front page, Laurie South, PRIME blogs, Research | No Comments »

Tory pension plans suffer from the usual flaw

Listen icon Listen to this item

Here we go again. George Osborne has announced plans at the Conservative Party conference to make us all keep working longer before we can draw our State Pensions. While this might a seem logical way to save public money it misses the same key point as most similar proposals to raise pension age. It assumes there are going to be jobs there for these older workers to do. In reality it is probable that almost half will be out of work.

So for many people it will simply mean moving from drawing their pension to drawing an out-of-work benefit. Where’s the saving in that?

Let’s be clear. I have no problem with the idea of working for a bit longer. In fact there’s a lot of positive things to be said for it. It would probably lead to a generally better standard of health, and many people would a welcome a chance to stay ‘connected’ and contribute to society for longer. And of course, there’s the financial benefits.

But the tricky bit is finding the jobs. So, at the moment, George Osborne has only half a policy. The difficult bit is missing.

The fundamental point that George Osborne seems to have missed is that alongside the proposed changes to State Pension Age, interventions are required to help older workers to stay in, or get back into, work – and these interventions come at a cost.

According to the last census, economic activity rates for workers during the five years immediately before retirement were only 58% for women, and 52% for men – and these figures are likely to have been worsened by the recession.

So what we really need from the Conservatives are some really innovative proposals that give older workers real support in finding sustainable work opportunities. Given the poor track record most companies have in hiring older workers, these proposals will have to include self-employment. This is how currently how over a third (35%) of 65 year-olds choose to work (source: ONS 2001 Census).

Full text of George Osborne’s speech

Print this item Print this item Email This Post Email This Post

Posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Under: Campaigns and policy, PRIME blogs, Peter Bennie | No Comments »

Scotland makes history with Older People’s Assembly

Listen icon Listen to this item

View of Scottish ParliamentOver 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, panels, committees and local assemblies across the UK, but nothing on this scale or with this potential.

A few years ago the obsession was with younger people’s parliaments. Thank goodness the reality of an ageing society has at last sunk home.

For me it was a great pleasure both to be able to speak about the work PRIME could deliver to help the Scottish Government create a wealthier and fairer Scotland, and to actually enjoy being in the ten-year-old Scottish Parliament building.

Like many first assemblies in the past, the sub-texts of this very successful meeting were about the legitimate areas of discussion, the format that any future meetings of this kind should take to be most effective, and what the extent and limits of the Assembly’s power might be.

At this stage the proceedings of the Assembly will form a report which will go to, amongst others, the Members of the Scottish Parliament. But there then has to be a deliberation about the next steps.

Younger people’s assemblies are a chance for the young to learn political skills, but older people’s assemblies may well offer a chance for older people to apply the political skills they have learnt over a lifetime. I was certainly urging the Assembly to demand a proper programme of enterprise support activities for older people in Scotland.

If society continues to be so youth obsessed, will older people take their political revenge through older people’s assemblies? It will be interesting to watch, but even better to participate.
Further reading:
Report on event from Age Concern and Help the Aged in Scotland

Print this item Print this item Email This Post Email This Post

Posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009
Under: Campaigns and policy, Front page, Laurie South, PRIME blogs | No Comments »

Guardian reports on the Olderpreneurs

Listen icon Listen to this item

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 events receive a plug, as does the PRIME-Zopa loan.

Other contributors make some telling points.

Dr Barrie Hopson, author of The Rainbow Years: The Pluses of Being 50+ is quoted as saying: “Only one-third of the over-55s are in employment. Many have taken early retirement or redundancy payoffs, or are in ill-health. Yet the studies show that if you want to stay healthy, stay in paid work. It’s very difficult for those made redundant to come back into the workforce, with lots of evidence of age discrimination. Not surprisingly, when no one will give you a job, you have to create your own.”

Ron Botham, author of Nesta’s report The Grey Economy: Third Age Entrepreneurs Critical to Growth, says: “Traditionally, it has been assumed that entrepreneurship is a young person’s game, but research shows that the share of older entrepreneurs has increased and is increasing.

“If an entrepreneur starts up their business later in life they will have much more experience of work,” he continues. “Many older people are attracted to setting up their own business as they can actually work after the official retirement age without any pressure to retire.”

Print this item Print this item Email This Post Email This Post

Posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009
Under: Front page, Media, Research | No Comments »

Northwest sets target for more older employment

Listen icon Listen to this item

Here in the Northwest we’ve compiled our own ageing framework – Everybody’s Future – A Northwest Regional Framework for Ageing. Within the framework, a number of priorities are highlighted. It calls for better support for over 50s enterprise and working together with our partners and stakeholders we’ve pushing towards a target of 80% employment for people aged 50 to 65.

In September I published the second issue of Prime in the Northwest – Stakeholder Newsletter. It’s features include an interview with Yvonne Sampson - Strategy Manager (Culture) in the Enterprise & Skills Directorate, here at the Northwest Development Agency. She talks about PRIME’s involvement with the regional Enterprise Forum and the importance of 50+ Ambassadors for Enterprise. There’s also a profile of Jill Molyneux talking about her work on the ground over in Doncaster.

PRIME and the NWDA are gearing up towards Enterprise Week in November – organizing events and activities to raise the profile of Over 50’s enterprise across the region. We’re looking for 50+ Ambassadors to demonstrate to others the benefits and opportunities self employment for over 50’s can offer.

If you or your clients would like to be involved in the NW Ambassador campaign or work with us during Enterprise Week, please get in touch with me, Heather Radley at PRIME in the NWDA and sign up today. We’ll actively raise your profile in the media and it’s an opportunity for you to help others realize the freedom self-employment can give.

Nationally the Government released ‘Building a Society for All Ages Strategy‘ back in July. One of its central objectives is to improve employment prospects for older people. This report highlights the value of self-employment - and PRIME itself is mentioned as playing an intrinsic role in delivering enterprise support for over 50s.

Print this item Print this item Email This Post Email This Post

Posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Under: Heather Radley, PRIME blogs | No Comments »

Page 1 of 1212345»...Last »