Ministers accused of failing in attempts to tempt over-50s back to work

In March Jeremy Hunt announced that he would be introducing a range of initiatives to get more people over the age of 50 back into work, telling MPs that “no country can thrive if it turns its back on such a wealth of talent and ability”.

These included “Returnerships”, a type of apprenticeship aimed at older “inactive” workers, as well as increasing “Mid-life MOTs”, which Mr Hunt claimed would increase five-fold for Universal Credit claimants to 40,000 a year.

These Mid-life MOTs were later given a website in July for older workers to view, with ministers in June saying that there were no figures for the number of in-person MOTs carried out in job-centres.

Labour last night accused the Government of effectively scrapping its “Returnerships” with older workers instead signposted to “Skills Bootcamps”, which figures show just under 5 per cent of starters were aged 55.

Analysis of the 100 available bootcamps for Yorkshire residents on the Government’s dedicated portal found that numerous courses were either unavailable or only available online.

One course listed for those in Yorkshire required the applicant to live in London. The Government admitted this was an error which the department will be amending as a priority.

Only one course was listed for those wanting to go into or return to the health and social care profession, despite the staffing crisis seen across the country.

“People in their 50s have incredible experiences and talents that we should be using in our economy,” Mr Ashworth told The Yorkshire Post.

“These would be growing our economy, boosting prosperity, boosting household incomes to get people with these experiences and talents back into the workplace.

“Jeremy Hunt's “back to work budget” should be done under the Trade Descriptions Act. It's failing to get people back to work, unemployment has just increased this week.

“Numbers out of work for reasons of sickness and poor health, are at record levels, and the consequence of not taking real meaningful action is a scandalous waste of people's talent.”

It comes after Mel Stride, the Secretary of State for Work and Pension, told The Times that older workers could look to more flexible jobs, such as delivering takeaways on a bicycle, if they wanted to re-enter the workforce.

“I think as a department we shouldn’t be prescriptive, so we're not here to start pontificating about whether people should or should not go back into work,” he added.

Mr Ashworth however, said that Mr Stride’s comments were “glib” and that if their plan to re-engage older workers is by suggesting they become delivery cyclists then “this is a government that has given up on the over 50s across Yorkshire.”

Minister for Employment, Guy Opperman MP said: “This is just another hypocritical announcement from Labour – no Labour government has ever left office with unemployment lower than it was when they came into power.

“The fact is that wherever Labour run the economy, unemployment is worse. Labour-run Wales has the worst unemployment rate of all the nations in the UK and the employment rate of over-50s in Wales is lower than in England.”

“Labour are just shouting from the sidelines while we are delivering our plan to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists and stop the boats.”

A Government spokesperson said: “We are investing millions in employment and skills support for the over 50s and this is already paying off with payroll numbers hitting a record high for this age group at over 8 million.

“Jobseekers have access to tailored advice, skills provision and dedicated 50 PLUS Champions in every Jobcentre Plus district on top of one-to-one advice from their Work Coach.

“The Secretary of State has been clear if employers want to make the most of the talent available to them, at all ages, providing flexibility is essential to that. It is for people to decide what suits their circumstances.”