PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
State Retirement Pensions: Females (23 January 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to offer additional support to women born in the 1950s who have had to stay in the workforce longer as a result of the increase in their pension age.

Asked by:
Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour)

The number of older people in employment is at near-record high. There are now 10.6 million workers aged 50 and over, compared to 9.1 million five years ago. Employment level for women aged 50 and over is currently 5 million.

To support women to remain and return to the labour market, the Government has removed the Default Retirement Age, meaning that most people can choose when to retire and extended the right to flexible working beyond carers, to all employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service with their employer.

In February 2017, the Government published our Fuller Working Lives strategy which set out the role employers, individuals and government can play in supporting older workers. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/587654/fuller-working-lives-a-partnership-approach.pdf

Additionally, we appointed a Business Champion for Older Workers to engage and influence employers on a practical and strategic level, promoting the benefits of an older workforce.

Through the National Retraining Partnership, a partnership between Government, the Confederation of British Industry and the Trades Union Congress, Government is developing the National Retraining Scheme. The National Retraining Scheme will help prepare adults for future changes to the economy, including those brought about by automation, to help them retrain into better jobs.

In February last year, DWP launched our online mid-life MOT page which encourages more active planning in the key areas of work, wellbeing and finances. https://www.yourpension.gov.uk/mid-life-mot/

To support employers, Business in The Community have created MOT toolkits to support businesses. https://age.bitc.org.uk/tools-impact-stories/toolkits

For people who simply can’t work, our welfare system will continue to provide a strong safety net, as it does for people of all ages now. We will spend £55 billion [£55.4bn] this year (2019/20) on benefits to support disabled people and people with health conditions. This is around 2.5% of GDP, and over 6% of government spending. As a share of GDP, the UK’s public spending is second highest in the G7, bar Germany [OECD 2015 data].

Answered by:
Guy Opperman (Conservative)
28 January 2020