Seniors Housing & Healthcare Trends

MELBOURNE: With the number of young people not in employment, education or training (Neets) climbing above a million this year for the first time in more than a decade, helping this group has rightly been the focus for the government, employers and charities. But since the Covid pandemic, a quieter crisis has occurred in the number of people over 50 dropping out of the workforce.

In the 50-64 age group, unemployment remains far lower than among those aged 16-24, at 3.1 per cent in 2025, which is in line with workers aged 35-49. The problem lies in the numbers of people in the older age group who are “economically inactive”, which was 26.1 per cent last year.

While that has come down from a peak of 27.7 per cent in 2022, it is higher than before the pandemic and reverses 25 years of progress before 2019 in keeping people in their 50s and early 60s in the workforce for longer.

This matters for the “health and wealth” of the individuals forced out of work by illness, injury or disabilities — and in some cases outright ageism by employers — as well the growth of the economy, according to Sir Charlie Mayfield, the former chairman of John Lewis who is lead author of the Keep Britain Working review on the impact of long-term sickness.

“The participation of older groups is just as important as young people, and perhaps economically and socially more important, because experienced people in their 50s and 60s have skills, knowledge and professional relationships built up over decades,” he said. “As society ages, we need to do more to help people stay longer in work.”

For employees, the financial hit comes in two directions. For someone earning £40,000, leaving work at 55 rather than 65 means losing out on £400,000 in pay and using up savings and drawing on their pension earlier.

“Helping someone to stay healthy enough to work for five or ten years more is one of the most impactful things we can do to improve the pensions position in this country,” Mayfield said.

So what changes can employers and employees make to turn around the decline? The number of people aged 50-64 reporting a health condition that limited the amount or type of work they could do increased by 900,000, or 32 per cent, between 2015 and 2024, according to research done for the Keep Britain Working review. Within that, the main work-limiting condition for 140,000 people was musculoskeletal problems, such as osteoarthritis or lower back pain, which inevitably increase as people get older.

The vital first step is to stop people falling out of work in the first place because they quickly become detached and lose confidence in their ability to come back. That means employers talking to their older employees about any developing health or mobility issues before they make it impossible for the person to carry on doing their job, then mutually deciding on what reasonable changes can be made at work.

“When somebody develops a back problem aged 57, they shouldn’t be forced to choose between doing the same thing they’ve done for 30 years or giving up work altogether,” Mayfield said. “It just happens with age that people develop health problems, so we need early identification and then to work with employees on getting the right treatment and support and making adjustments if needed.”

The typical way employees are signed off sick by GPs also needs to change, Mayfield’s review concluded. Employers can assist in this by agreeing with the employee a list of tasks they cannot do and those that they can, so that they can take the form to their GP and be signed off certain parts of their job on health grounds, rather than being signed off work completely, which sometimes leads to months off unnecessarily or people leaving altogether.

Poor health is, of course, not the only reason over-50s leave work or find themselves working fewer hours than they want to. The impact of artificial intelligence on entry-level jobs is widely discussed, but automation is also affecting experienced staff.

“I’ve been lucky enough to have a 36-year career writing about the technology industry,” Sue Tabbitt, 57, a writer and editor based in Carmarthenshire, southwest Wales, said. She became a freelancer after her husband died when her children were young and she was able to build a steady income because “the industry was changing continuously, so there’s always been an abundance of work”. Now the combination of a weak economy and generative AI means the communications teams she worked with “are under pressure to use AI rather than working with writers”.

“It’s a bit scary really, because I want to work for another nine years or so and I haven’t got the budget or time to retrain,” she said. “It’s also a horrible way to bow out of a career that was busy and rewarding.”

She’s now applying for completely different jobs close to home near Cardigan, stressing her transferable skills. “I’m not after status or a big salary, just financial security and feeling appreciated.”

John Kiernan, employer engagement manager at the Centre for Ageing Better, said that “there is still obviously age discrimination, although it’s hidden” when companies are hiring, and that older job seekers can also suffer with “internalised ageism”.

“People may not have been through the recruitment process in recent years, so while they have fantastic skills and experience for the role, they may be unsure how to present it or feel they won’t be given a fair chance,” he added.

Practical changes that employers can make to level the playing field include changing application forms for all applicants so that they only cover the last two to five years of work, and making it clear in job adverts that they offer flexibility and make reasonable adjustments for health issues or caring responsibilities.

“A third of the workforce is over 50 and companies that do make it clear they’re age-inclusive gain an advantage because they’re drawing on a pool of skilled people with good problem-solving abilities based on years of experience,” Kiernan said.

Older workers are also less likely to leave after a short time in search of promotion and have already experienced a lot of technological change throughout their working lives. “It’s not about fear of change, but it’s important people at all stages of their career have equal access to training and development in AI,” he added.

More than 600 organisations have signed up to the Centre for Ageing Better’s age-friendly employer pledge since 2022, including Zurich Insurance, Veolia, Natural England and the Department for Work and Pensions. Participants commit to hire without age discrimination, offer flexible working (which the centre’s research shows is the single biggest factor that would enable out-of-work people in their 50s and 60s to come back), offer workplace training regardless of age and ensure all staff have support with health issues.

“This is one of those unusual opportunities where the interests of the individual, the employer and the country are remarkably well aligned,” Mayfield said. “People can be wealthier and healthier, employers retain experienced people and skills, and Britain gets higher workforce participation and growth.”

Chris James, 58, and his wife, Lynn, opened their home care agency Visiting Angels in Chessington, Surrey, in 2020, as a franchise of the large US care company of the same name. The business now has about 85 carers visiting elderly people at home in the local area, including Kingston upon Thames, New Malden and Cobham.

James previously worked for a football betting company but the couple had long wanted to start their own business and “once we were in our 50s, we wanted more control over our working lives”.

He said: “A lot of people get to the point where they’re just waiting to retire, or they’re ready for a change but they’re getting paid too much to leave, and I didn’t want to be like that.”

As well as changing their own working lives, the couple now actively recruit older staff because “people in their 50s and 60s just crack on”, he added. “They’re really committed to their clients, they’re reliable, punctual and they’re good communicators — they can walk into the room and start a conversation. For our clients in their late 80s or 90s, it’s like their son or daughter turning up.”

Staff don’t need specific care qualifications if they can show they have these qualities, and James met several older staff at job fairs for over-50s at local job centres in Surrey. “Four people we met at the same job fair in 2022 are all still working for us,” he said.