Wise Owls latest news

Cap care costs at £35,000 report says

2011-07-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

Source - Press Association

An independent report has called for care costs for older people to be capped at £35,000.

The Commission on Funding of Care and Support - chaired by economist Andrew Dilnot - said the move would prevent circumstances where people requiring personal care are forced to sell their home to meet the costs involved.

The report's recommendations, which would cost the Government about £1.7 billion a year, would ensure that no one requiring residential care in retirement would have to spend more than 30% of their assets paying for it.

The commission also called for the means-tested assets threshold to be increased from £23,250 to £100,000.

The Government is yet to respond to the report, but Health Secretary Andrew Lansley earlier indicated its support for a cap on care costs.

Mr Dilnot said: 'The current system is confusing, unfair and unsustainable. People can't protect themselves against the risk of very high care costs and risk losing all their assets, including their house.

'This problem will only get worse if left as it is, with the most vulnerable in our society being the ones to suffer.

'Under our proposed system, everybody who gets free support from the state now will continue to do so and everybody else would be better off.'

The Dilnot Commission recommended that the cap on lifetime contributions to social care costs should be set between £25,000 and £50,000. However it went on to add that £35,000 was 'the most appropriate and fair figure'.

Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director at Age UK, commented: 'Age UK welcomes the Dilnot Commission recommendations, which set out a clear blueprint for long term sustainable reform of social care.

'The Government now needs to act on Andrew Dilnot’s proposals and follow the Commission’s ambitious but achievable timetable of a White Paper by the spring. Delay beyond Easter would be indefensible.

'By setting a clear cap on contributions towards the cost of care, the Government would lift the fear and uncertainty for many.

'The social care system has been neglected for too long and allowed to reach the brink of collapse. The time to act boldly is now to reassure today and tomorrow’s older people.'

View the entire Dilnot Commission 'Fairer Care Funding' report

Pensions: Unfair attacks on an already unfair system

2011-06-21T06:19:00.000-07:00

The ongoing attack on ordinary older working age women and men is gaining pace and ferocity, which we must be prepared to stand up to.

All 3 main parties are committed to raising the retirement age for men and women to 66 and then soon after to 67, the difference being the coalition wants to do it even sooner, now by 2016 for men and 2020 for women.

The impact on older working age women (50+) is horrific, and the poorer they are the worse it will be. Firstly the retirement age is to go up from 60 to 65 within 6 years in 2018 – a rise of 5 years of forced extra work. This is unfair on so many levels, but one of them being that women who started work between 30 and 40 years ago have been given n time to prepare for this especially as saving for a pension was not a task required earlier in their life. The contract they started with which presumed that they could retire on their pension has been broken. As a result, 500,000 women aged 56 and 57 will endure a delay in their state pension of over a year; 33,000 will face a delay of two years.

On top of this women tend to get smaller state pensions and second pensions as they have often been out of the labour market while bringing up children and are more likely to be in part time employment. Employer pensions have also tended to be lower for women – with women receiving on average 15.7 % lower of the average male wage and again many have only been offered part time work. Many service industry and health and social care jobs are low paid and have been given predominantly to women and have little or no pension entitlements attached. In addition lower paid public sector jobs (including the NHS) are more likely to be carried out by women generating low pensions which are at present under attack by the government forcing people to work longer and pay in more. Finally the private pension sector has seen its own profits and that of its senior employees rise enormously but that has not translated for the majority of small pension holders into adequate pension benefits ( remember Equitable Life).

This has left us in the UK with one of the lowest levels of pensions in the EU for the majority of workers, especially women. Even the Netherlands, which has the second-lowest level, provides a state pension nearly double the UK figure. the value of Britain's state pension for a single person is 30.8% of the average wage. This figure is 32.5% in Ireland, 39.9% in Germany and 51.2% in France.

The result is that for many of us when we retire we move immediately into poverty – even with pension credits the total individual state pension payment is around £125 per week.
This is the situation today and now the government wants to make it worse forcing us to work longer to get minimal pension payments. Meanwhile our own research and drawing on figures from the Office of National Statistics has shown that the number of workless aged between 50 – 65 has grown to over 3.5 million, with the present public sector redundancies and cuts overwhelmingly targeting the over 50s ( over 66% of local authorities redundancies have been forced on the over 50s) this will get even worse. ONS figures show that for the over 50s at present, there is only a 16% chance of getting re-employed over the next year, that’s the lowest figure in a decade.

So while we are being forced to work longer and be denied our pension we are also being forced out of work so are having to rely on minimal state benefits that are even less than a pension.

In the face of all this Wise Owls supports the campaigns to stop this raising of the pension age, to halt the current timetable to force women to work 5,6 and then 7 years longer and to demand a basic living pension for all women and men.

We would also urge people to support our campaign against public sector redundancies especially the targeting of older workers and to support our Promoting Age Diversity campaign, which is geared to getting employers from all sectors to employ an age diverse workforce of older, younger and middle aged workers encouraging greater numbers of employees.

Given the level of opposition and resistance across the UK and now even more so across the EU to the government driven attacks on the standard of living of ordinary working people as a result of the tax avoidance and lack of taxation or regulation speculation by banks, large financial and global institutions and their millionaire owners and senior staff we would urge our fellow baby boomers to remember the lessons of the past.

Unless we take action then nothing will change, and we should support the youth, the social activists and working people who are now actively campaigning to force a new socially and economically just approach towards solving this crisis of capital
Wise owls

Education: The age of uncertainty

2011-06-17T03:05:00.000-07:00

Later learning enriches the lives of thousands of elderly people. But widespread library closures could spell an end to many of these study groups.

The mass closure of public libraries is hitting older people and retired people who want to learn and keep their minds active. The sort of learning that goes on in the University of the Third Age (U3A) – the learning that retired people do because they want to do it, not because they need it for their careers – will be worst hit.

We know how serious it is because our 250,000 members are telling us. U3A study groups rely on public libraries for source materials. Some older people rely on a nearby library, or a mobile library, that will not be there next year. Many U3A interest groups depend on local libraries for research materials, and more than 30 U3As have told U3A News they are involved in campaigns to save their local libraries. Some 800 public libraries are expected to close around the country, about a fifth of the total.

The Government ought to be encouraging the U3A – it fits all the criteria the Prime Minister outlined earlier in the year. It requires no state funding; it is self-created and self-directed. It is a real example of people taking their learning into their own hands – we have no teachers, only group leaders who co-ordinate a group's efforts to learn. Our members fund it themselves, teach it themselves, and take all their own decisions.

One of many U3A members who have been in touch with us about libraries is Karen Jonason of Lewisham in south London, who began her retirement last summer by starting a campaign to save her local library from closure. The borough has 12 libraries and councillors want to close the five smallest.

Karen says: "Judging by the comments in the online petition I set up, they are particularly valued by older people, who fear they will become increasingly socially isolated as their neighbourhood libraries are closed." Karen and her fellow campaigners presented petitions with 20,000 signatures to the council before Christmas, backed up by street stalls and demonstrations at the town hall.

Haddenham U3A's 240 members are trying to save the well used local library, which serves their 5,000 inhabitants and surrounding villages in Buckinghamshire. Secretary Peter Wenham says: "Haddenham U3A, as a learning organisation, is determined to maintain a visible library service. From the U3A perspective, apart from the general use by many members, our book and play-reading groups rely on the library." The county council is advocating the replacement of librarians by volunteers. Some local U3A members would be prepared to volunteer but only if there is professional help, and they are not prepared to put librarians out of a job. Also, they cannot raise the £76,000 projected expenditure for 2010-11.

Sometimes reductions that seem quite small can have a devastating effect on our study groups. The Music Appreciation Group of Pembrokeshire U3A borrows CDs from local libraries. Its leader, Brian Harvey, says: "These have now been withdrawn and are only available online. However, there is no catalogue available, which makes locating what we need well nigh impossible. Additionally, ordering CDs is like negotiating a minefield."

Some of our older members are especially concerned. Alan Orme and his wife are nearly 80 and facing the loss of the mobile library service to Liss Forest. The library only visits on alternate Fridays from 11.55am to 12.20pm, but it's a lifeline – Alan and his wife partly arrange their diaries around its arrival. Alan says: "It will be difficult going the 1.2 miles to the occasional mobile in Liss [if that continues], let alone the six miles to Petersfield, or 10 miles to Alton, to the main libraries. We know that once lost, it will never return."

Ninety-year-old Nora Dunn, a U3A member in Oxfordshire, reports that her local library, situated in the local school and used by the children as well as the villagers, is threatened with closure. She tells me: "It will particularly affect my husband and myself because we are both housebound. I'm not looking forward to a bookless future."

Jeremy Senneck is chairman of Southwater U3A, where they waited 35 years for a promised library following a lot of new development. When it opened, five years ago, they were horrified at the short time that it was going to be open. Now a further cut in hours means that a village of 10,000 people gets three mornings and three afternoons per week.

U3A members Jackie and Colin Aylott tell me that Surrey Heath Borough Council is proposing to cut their weekly mobile library service in Windlesham from August. This means either a two-mile journey to Bagshot or a five-mile journey to Camberley for the nearest library service. Many of the villagers cannot drive, there are only two buses a day, and those are under threat too.

The U3A is resolutely non-political. It gets no direct help from central or local government, and asks for none. It's not for us to enter into arguments about how best to deal with the economic crisis, or what scale of cuts is needed, or whether central or local government is to blame. But it's been proved that continuing to learn into retirement keeps older people healthy, mentally and physically, which benefits both them and the health service.

It requires nothing from the public sector except a level of infrastructure, and in particular, good public libraries everywhere. Taking that away is appallingly short-sighted and, even in economic terms, it will cost more in the long term.

Ian Searle is chairman of the University of the Third Age

Learning at leisure

The University of the Third Age (U3A) was founded in 1982 to provide learning opportunities for people in their third age – people who no longer need to work full time or look after young children. The three founders were Michael Young (who also helped found the Open University), Peter Laslett and Eric Midwinter, and it took off after an avalanche of letters followed an interview with Eric Midwinter on the radio programme You and Yours.

The founders' principle was that groups of people would get together to learn what interested them, and would have, not a teacher, but a group leader, who might not know any more than the others, but could co-ordinate their efforts.

The U3A has grown every year since it was founded, and there are now more than a quarter of a million members in 798 local U3As. Each local U3A is autonomous, and sets up whatever study groups it wishes.

There are no examinations, no qualifications, and no set curricula. There is a national office that provides help, advice and learning materials to U3As, but does not tell them what to do, and a national magazine, U3A News.

For more information visit www.u3a.org.uk, email national.office@u3a.org.uk, or telephone 020 8466 6139

Article from the Independent

MPs's and their connections to Private Health Care

2011-06-14T02:43:00.000-07:00

Wise Owls have compiled a selection of MP's who have connections to Private Health Care companies. The coalition government have now conducted their 'listening' exercise, and we at Wise Owls felt it important to see why they are so keen to open up the NHS to competition, which remains in the new idealogue despite this being one of the major concerns of the public.

The argument for increased efficiancy has not been won as a massive survey for the Commonwealth fund showed. The survey, which looked at 20,000 patients in eleven industrialised countries found that the NHS was almost the least costly healthcare system, of them all and gave one of the best levels of access to care. Other countries not only spent more per head, but also charged patients directly. Only Switzerland reported faster access to care. In addition utlities privatisation, such as water, railways and gas have proven to be a financial disaster for the customer as well as the taxpayer through subsidy increase. Should public services remain pubic?

We feel that any MP who has a direct financial gain or donation from a company should not be able to vote on a bill that is a conflict of interest regardless of whether they have registered it in the members of interest register.

The connections:

1. Andrew Lansley - John Nash, the chairman of Care UK, gave £21,000 to fund Andrew Lansley’s personal office in November 2009. In a recent interview, a senior director of the firm said that 96 per cent of Care UK’s business, which amounted to more than £400 million last year, came from the NHS. - Hedge fund boss John Nash is one of the major Conservative donors with close ties to the healthcare industry.

He and wife Caroline gave £203,500 to the party over the past five years.

The “hedgie” is also a founder of City firm Sovereign Capital, which runs a string of private healthcare firms. Fellow founder Ryan Robson is another major Tory donor who has given the party £252,429.45.

His donations included £50,000 to be a member of the party’s “Leader’s Group”, a secretive cash-for-access club. The would-be MP, who tried but failed to get selected as the election candidate in Bracknell, is managing partner at Sovereign Capital. - Daily Mirror

2. Andrew Lansley's wife, Sally Low, is founder and managing director of Low Associates ("We make the link between the public and private sectors"). A Daily Telegraph report in February records that the Low Associates website lists pharmaceuticals companies SmithKline Beecham, Unilever and P&G among its clients. It also records Ms Low's assertion that the company "does not work with any client who has interests in the health sector". The website currently contains no reference to the drug firms listed above. Channel4 news

3. Circle, the ambitious private healthcare firm run and owned by clinicians, has recruited a former aide to health secretary Andrew Lansley as head of communications. Christina Lineen spent two years working for Lansley, who became health secretary after the general election. The company’s income is derived from private patients, either on insurance schemes or paying for themselves, but it also treats NHS patients. - public affairs news

4. Nick de Bois, MP for Enfield North - De Bois is the majority shareholder in Rapier Design Group, an events management company heavily involved with the private medical and pharmaceutical industries, and whose clients include leading names such as AstraZeneca. The company was established by the Tory MP in 1998. Last year it had a turnover of £13m. Last April, Rapier Design purchased Hampton Medical Conferences to "strengthen the company's position in the medical sector". It is involved in running conferences and other events for private-sector clients, and for NHS hospitals. A number of the company's clients are "partners" of the National Association of Primary Care (NAPC), a lobby group supporting the health secretary's plans. Rapier Design Group's biggest clients stand to profit when the NHS is opened up to wider private-sector involvement. The GP commissioning consortium for south-west Kent, covering 49 GP practices and known as Salveo, has already signed a contract with the pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca aimed at improving diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Guardian

5. Patricia Hewitt, is a former director of Andersen Consulting (now Accenture - which has gained from PFI contracts - Former Labour Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has been an advisor to Cinven. Corporate Watch

6. Alan Milburn, then Health Secretary, was a consultant for Alliance Medical’s parent company. Alliance Medical runs diagnostic services for the NHS, including in Birmingham[15] and Falkirk.[16] UNISON reported that services were giving patients sub-optimal care, losing the NHS money because of below-capacity uptake, and pressurising hospitals into using private sector treatments - Corporate Watch

7. Lord Carter, the head of the increasingly influential Competition and Cooperation Panel, is an adviser to Warburg Pincus International Ltd, a private equity firm with significant investments in the healthcare industry. Chairman Patrick Carter, or Lord Carter of Coles to give him his full title, was the founder of Westminster Health Care, a leading private nursing home company. He is also the Chair of McKesson Information Solutions Ltd, which delivers IT to “virtually every NHS organisation”, the chair of Primary Group Ltd, a Bermudan based private equity company, and a substantial shareholder in, among other companies, B-Plan Information Systems Ltd, which has also benefited from the increased need for large scale IT systems that the introduction of an internal market to the NHS has brought with it (see the interview with Frank Wood, of King’s foundation trust, where B-Plan has worked, in the last news update). Carter’s register of interests in the House of Lords also lists him as an adviser to Warburg Pincus International Ltd, a private equity firm, which has significant investments in the healthcare industry. It even rescued United Healthcare from financial ruin in 1987 and helped it to become one of the largest healthcare companies in the world. He can now help it to become one of the biggest beneficiaries of the government’s reforms. - Corporate Watch

8. David Heathcoat-Amory - MP for Wells and a former Treasury minister, registered a payment of "£1,671.08 and health benefit to the value of £86.17" in July from Western Provident Association, which provides private medical insurance policies.

The MP defended his work as a non-executive director for the firm, which pays him around £20,000 a year, saying: "The insight I receive from that helps me during health-related debates in Parliament and being part of the world of work and commerce helps me in scrutinising other parliamentary bills." - Daily Telegraph.

9. Mark Simmonds, a shadow health minister, accepted a trip to the United States to look at hospitals there from Bupa UK. Mr Simmonds missed out on a ministerial job in the government.

10. David Cameron - Nursing and care home tycoon Dolar Popat has given the Conservatives £209,000.

The Ugandan-born dad-of-three has amassed an estimated £42million fortune as founder and chief of TLC Group, which provides services for the elderly.

Mr Cameron made the businessman a peer shortly after entering No10 last May, and Lord Popat’s donations include a £25,000 gift registered a week after the Tories’ health reforms were unveiled last July. Daily Mirror.

10. Rob Wilson, MP for Reading East, registered shares in Vital Imaging, a private screening company. Daily Mirror.

12. Stephen O’Brien Eddisbury MP - Stephen O’Brien’s office received three payments totalling £40,000 from Julian Schild. Mr Schild’s family made £184million in 2006 by selling hospital bed-makers Huntleigh Technology.

Mr O’Brien was moved to International Development after the election. Daily Mirror.

13. Lord McColl, is a paid consultant to a new private healthcare company that provides a fee-paying rival to the National Health Service’s family doctor service.

Endeavour Health, which was set up by two hedge fund advisers, claims to be Britain’s first comprehensive GP network, offering access to the best doctors and the opportunity to beat NHS queues and have appointments at any time they want. Endeavour Health was founded last year by two financial advisers, Briton Yadin Shemmer and American Jonathan Weiss, to compete with the NHS. Times online.

14. Mark Lloyd Davies - a French pharmaceutical company gave a job to this prospective Bristol South Tory - News of the World.

15. Simon Burns attended an oncology conference paid for by Aventis Pharma - a five-day trip to the US funded by a leading drug firm. Daily Mirror

New London Employer Survey Reveals Lack of Preparation to Deal with Abolition of the Default Retirement Age

2011-05-31T06:45:00.000-07:00

A new survey by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and Penningtons Solicitors LLP reveals that London employers are ill-prepared to deal with the implications that the abolition of the default retirement age (DRA) may have on managing their workforce. Entitled Tackling the age-old problem of retirement, the findings show that 57 per cent are not prepared for and 26 per cent do not know about the biggest change to 2011 employment law.

The key findings of the survey are:

More than half (57 per cent) of respondents have not yet taken any action to deal effectively with the April and October 2011 changes to the retirement age, although more than four out of ten (43 per cent) respondents consider themselves to be either quite well or very well prepared.
More than a quarter (26 per cent) of respondents are not well informed about the abolition of the DRA.
More than three quarters (78 per cent) of respondents think that workers should be retained on their ability rather than their age.
More than two thirds (68 per cent) of respondents agree that the UK’s employment legal framework needs to be modernised. Although over a third (38 per cent) agree or strongly agree that keeping people at work longer will NOT solve the pensions’ crisis.
More than half (56 per cent) are concerned that older employees may refuse to retire even when they cannot perform their job effectively, and 54 per cent are concerned about the lack of clarity about how to legitimately retire employees.
More than four out of ten (44 per cent) of respondents are concerned that there will be more age-related and Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) tribunal claims for unfair dismissal and that there will be fewer promotion opportunities for younger workers.

Third Age Employment Network

Brits 'facing poor retirement'

2011-05-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

Britons are avoiding planning and saving for their retirement despite being fully aware of issues such as the UK's growing ageing population and less generous pension schemes, according to a report.

The report, by the HSBC, found just 39% of people have a financial plan in place for their future, despite many planning on going part-time in their 50s and giving up work at 62.

One in five said they do not know how they will fund their retirement, while 21% expected to be able to live off a state pension.

The report said that people seem to be avoiding the fact that people are living longer and that company pensions are likely to be less generous when they retire.

Around 49% of people expect to be worse off in their old age than their parents, with just 27% expecting to have a higher income.

A further 68% of people admit that they are worried that they are not financially prepared for when they stop work.

Even among those who do have a financial plan in place, only 26% have taken professional financial advice on what they should do.

David Wells, head of investments, pensions and savings at HSBC, said: 'The emergence of this ostrich generation is a real concern.

'Britons know that they need to plan and save more for their retirement, yet are not turning this knowledge into action.'

Over 50 And Out Of Work: 'My Wife Doesn't Love Me Anymore; My Kids Don't Love Me' (VIDEO)

2011-05-23T05:48:00.000-07:00

Mike Risinger's 17-year career as a draftsman started falling apart in 2008. When the financial crisis hit, he spent a year working as a contractor, and then a few weeks working for a friend before a starting an endless stretch of unemployment. Now his wife is working two full-time jobs to pick up the slack.

"We see her very little, and usually when we do see her she's dead tired and doesn't want to do anything," Risinger says in a video posted online May 9. "It's miserable."

Risinger, who lives in Portland, Ore., says one of his two daughters wants to go to college next year. "I don't know how she's going to pay for it. The finger gets pointed at me," he says, his eyes weary. "I seem to have lost my edge. I can't get an interview anymore."

"My wife doesn't love me anymore," the 58-year-old says, smiling instead of crying. "My kids don't love me."

Risinger's video lives on Over 50 And Out Of Work, a site created by New York-based journalist Susan Sipprelle to document the jobs crisis among older workers. Sipprelle, 52, is looking out for people like herself.

"I could see the impact this is having on my peers," she says. "So many of our interviewees thought they were set for life."

The site has videos of jobless Americans from all over the country. Sipprelle and her team this week embarked on their final trip -- to Louisville, Ky. -- where they will film their 100th interview.

Story continues below

Workers older than 55 are much less likely to lose their jobs, but once they do, they're much more likely to be unemployed for a long time. The average jobless spell for older workers now lasts longer than a year. The anxiety and despair among people stuck in this situation has been well-documented in studies, particularly by Carl Van Horn at Rutgers University's John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development. (Van Horn is one of several experts Sipprelle has interviewed for the project.)

But statistics and expert witnesses can't convey the poignancy that Sipprelle's jobless interview subjects can.

Elizabeth Zima, of Calistoga, Calif., for one, has been out of work since she lost her job as a health care writer in 2008 and has already blown through her retirement savings.

"I can't pay my taxes," says Zima, 57, suppressing sobs in a March 15 video. "I can't pay my taxes. I've always filed. I always have felt it's been my responsibility. I can't pay 'em. Even an extension -- I'm not gonna be able to pay 'em."

Sipprelle says two or three of the people she's profiled have since found work with pay comparable to what they'd earned before being laid off. A few others have taken jobs with much worse pay, while some have struck out as entrepreneurs. "We have a handful in really, really bad shape," she says.

To view video - click here.

Prague Poll: 5 out of 6 confirm age discrimination at work

2011-05-03T05:55:00.001-07:00

Prague, May 2 (CTK) - Five out of six persons (85 percent) believe that a group of people is discriminated against at work in the Czech Republic, according to a STEM institute's poll released yesterday.

The portion of those who say some employees are discriminated against has been the highest since 2004 when this kind of poll was conducted for the first time by STEM. It is 9 percentage points more than in the previous poll held last November.
Only 1 percent of the respondents said deliberate discrimination certainly did not occur at work. Nearly one third of Czechs hold the opposite opinion, or that deliberate discrimination certainly occurred at work.

About 87 percent said they believe employees or entrepreneurs were deliberately discriminated against because of their age. Three-fourths said a worsened health condition was a reason for discrimination at work.

Other frequent reasons for discrimination were maternity or pregnancy (69 percent) and race (59 percent).

On the other hand, only 7 percent of the respondents said employees were discriminated against because of their faith or religion, and according to 14 percent this happened because of one's sexual orientation or political views.

Respondents had similar opinions on discrimination irrespective of their age, education or political views or whether they were employees or entrepreneurs. There are certain differences between the opinions of men and women and of people from different social groups.
The poll was conducted on 1286 people over 18 in early April.

http://praguemonitor.com/2011/05/03/poll-5-out-6-confirm-discrimination-workplace

Pictures from the demonstration against the Eritrean Dictatorship

2011-03-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

2011-03-15T04:20:00.000-07:00

It is 19 years since the British Medical Association last thought it necessary to call a crisis meeting of its members in response to upheaval in the NHS. On that occasion, 26 March 1992, representatives of doctors across Britain debated John Major's attempt to reform the NHS by separating the purchasers of healthcare from the providers. On Tuesday a special representative meeting will take place again – this time to consider its position in relation to Andrew Lansley's plan to take the internal market of that era several stages further and prepare the NHS for privatisation.

Lansley has a problem; few of the BMA's 140,000 members believe his plans are sensible or will deliver what he claims. The British Medical Journal has dubbed the reforms "Dr Lansley's Monster", the National Audit Office has warned that the quality of service offered by GPs could drop, and the King's Fund has pointed out the government runs the risk of replacing the bureaucracy of performance management with the red tape of economic regulation.

This mother of all reforms plans to further extend the healthcare market within the health service in England, fronted by GPs, herded en masse into commissioning consortiums. They will be given £80bn of public funds to buy healthcare from a system of competing providers under an "any willing provider" policy that will see private hospitals able to provide NHS care.

For professionals delivering care, the commercialisation of the health service will lead to a situation where clinical decision-making is increasingly influenced by financial considerations leading to the erosion of the social contract between doctors and patients. This is an affront to the public service ethos that glues the NHS together. The traditional role of doctors as the true advocates of patients will soon become history, just as it has in the US.

But the BMA has its own problem: many of its members believe its policy of "critical engagement" with the government over the NHS reform white paper that became the current health and social care bill has failed, and that it has to be more direct. Despite having more than 30,000 GPs in its ranks – the supposed winners from the shakeup – the BMA has been criticising the bill in increasingly strident tones. But the meeting will hear impassioned pleas for "critical engagement" to be replaced with outright opposition to the entire bill.

The BMA must grasp the nettle and unmask Lansley's reform agenda for what it is – the final step in the privatisation of the service. No amendments are going to turn this sow's ear into a silk purse, and the special representatives' meeting needs to vote in favour of rejecting the bill in its entirety. This would send out the strongest possible message that the grassroots of the medical profession have understood and rejected Lansley's ideologically driven plans.

The meeting should also recognise that a continuous evolution of the NHS is needed, with greater provider responsiveness and accountability. However, a high quality and efficient NHS will never be achieved using the market forces of "creative destruction". It is time to reject the market ideology that has plagued the NHS for more than 30 years and wasted billions of pounds, and move forward with a publicly funded, publicly provided, publicly accountable healthcare system based on co-operation, collaboration and the social contract between doctors and patients.

Tomorrow's meeting will be passionate and argumentative. There is a huge issue at stake: how doctors should respond to, and hopefully extinguish, plans that have little logic, support or justification. The BMA has world-class leaders. But at times such as these, when the core of the NHS is at risk, they can no longer simply wait and watch.

Government eyes reform of basic state pension

2011-03-08T05:36:00.000-08:00

The basic state pension needs radical reform and cannot be immune from the Coalition Government's welfare shake-up, Iain Duncan Smith will declare today. The Work and Pensions Secretary wants to scrap the pension credit top-up scheme introduced by Labour for over-60s on low incomes and instead give people more incentive to save. The move could be signalled in the Budget on 23 March.

By simplifying the system and cutting administrative costs, Mr Duncan Smith believes the basic state pension – currently £97.65 a week for a single pensioner and £156.15 a week for a couple – could be raised to a flat-rate pension worth around £140 a week for all pensioners. This would benefit women and carers, who are disadvantaged by the current system because many do not clock up enough national insurance contributions (NICs) to qualify for the full state pension. The new "single tier" pension would be based on residency rather than NICs.

Critics may argue that people who cannot afford to save while they are of working age could be worse off and that the proposal would help better-off pensioners. Any reform potentially carries high risks because there is a high turnout among the 10.5 million pensioners at general elections. But Mr Duncan Smith is confident he can sell the proposed change as fairer and more generous than the present system.

He intends to sweep away means-tested state handouts which, he argues, penalise people who save while working. At present, the £6bn-a-year pension credit guarantees a minimum weekly income of £132.60 for a single person and £202.40 for a couple.

In a speech to the Age UK charity in London today, the Work and Pensions Secretary will say his plans mirror his proposal for a universal benefit for people of working age. "We have to send out a clear message across both the welfare and pension systems – you will be better off in work than on benefits, and you will be better off in retirement if you save," he will say.

Mr Duncan Smith's approach is backed by Steve Webb, the Liberal Democrat minister for Pensions. They are believed to have made progress in their negotiations with the Treasury, which was initially wary. However, such a fundamental reform would have to be phased in over several years.

London Mayor Refuses To Meet With Wise Owls To Discuss Shocking Age Audit Findings

2011-03-07T07:39:00.001-08:00

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has refused to meet with Wise Owls to discuss the findings of our recent Age Audit and our wider Age Equality Impact Assessment Campaign.

The Audit, which used FOI data to examine employment opportunities and redundacy rates of older people within London Borough councils, found that over 50s are 3 times more likely to be fired than their younger counterparts. In addition, over 50s made up as little as 18% of new recruits.

Despite these shocking findings, our request to meet with the Mayor has been turned down.

For more information on our Age Equality Impact Assessment Campaign and the findings of the Audit, click here

Have Your Say on this story

Local Elections: Independent Candidate Recruitment Drive

2011-02-25T03:43:00.000-08:00

The Independent Network is recruiting ‘Independent Candidates for Local Government Elections’ by placing advertS on the popular listings site Guardian Jobs, Graduate-Jobs.com, Gumtree, Wiseowls.com

The Independent Network is the only campaigning organisation that promotes and supports independent candidates and non-party politicians. Ahead of the Local Elections 2011 it has launched a recruitment drive to encourage those dissatisfied with party political representation to stand for local government positions. Applicants are requested to “run as candidates for local government positions to represent their communities and consciences [treating] political opponents with courtesy and respect whilst being free from the control of any political party, pressure group or whip”.

The adverts are targetting people in all 279 English local authorities excluding London: candidates are also sought to the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly. Applicants from London are receiving advice on how to organise a longer campaign for independent candidacy at the next London local elections in 2012.

Councillor Catherine Lewis, from Torfaen, Wales and recently short-listed for an ‘Online Councillor Award’, said:

“The Independent Network is encouraging people of all ages and all backgrounds to apply by posting adverts on Gumtree.com, Graduate-jobs.com and Wiseowls.co.uk as well as the high traffic Guardian Jobs site. Through targeting a variety of websites they are likely to capture the attention of a variety of possible candidates. It’s great to see such a widespread recruitment drive. Unlike national elections, it’s free to stand for government at a local level, so there really should be no barrier to getting involved with your local democracy.”

NEW CAMPAIGN MANUAL FOR INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES

Independent candidates are being sent a new campaign manual, produced by the Independent Network for independent candidates standing in the May 2011 local government elections.

Jim Thornton, an Executive member of the Independent Network, and co-author of the booklet said:

“The manual, ‘Elections on a Shoe-string’, includes ideas from all round the country for getting maximum votes for minimum cost. Local press ideas, innovative canvassing tactics, cost efficient impact publicity, and the basic ‘need-to-know’ information is all included. Copies are being sent to independent groups of councillors and supporters of independently minded politics across the United Kingdom, and are available for free to all candidates endorsed by the Independent Network.”

Councillor Tom Bletsoe, St Ives, Cambridgeshire, 18 years old and the UK’s youngest councillor, said:

“I’m living proof that young people can get elected. The election campaign is a great experience where you have to learn a tool-kit of new skills, and if elected you’re given the opportunity to represent your communities and have a say in how your council is run. 2.5 million people are currently unemployed. 951,000 of those 2.5 million are aged between 16-25: that’s almost 1 million intelligent, energetic people who could get involved with local politics. Only 37 percent of 18-24 year-olds voted in the 2005 General Election – the lowest percentage turnout for any age group, but we are still interested in local issues and in political issues, we’re just fed up with party political tribes.”

Mayor Tony Egginton, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, the first independent elected Mayor, said:

“The recruitment drive offers solutions to disgruntled voters and those with some time to give – from new graduates to skilled labourers and retired businessmen. It could be an opportunity – in an employment vacuum – for young people and old to engage with a political system that does not appear to represent them. Over the last two decades membership of UK political parties has fallen drastically but most people remain interested in local issues. It’s so important that these people are encouraged to stand for election without having to sell-out to a political party.”

To receive endorsement from the Independent Network candidates’ commitment to the Bell Principles is assessed at a local level. The Bell Principles are the first code of conduct for elected representatives.

Martin Bell OBE, The inspiration for the Bell Principles, said:

“It is a time for the election of independents, without party baggage but with real world experience, to be a force for honest politics in local government. They will be answerable not to a political party but only to their constituents and their consciences.”

TRAINING EVENT FOR INDEPENDENT NETWORK

A training day will be held for independent candidates on Saturday 26^th May in London, just six weeks ahead of the local elections 2011. The six weeks that follow are when the bulk of each candidates’ campaign is run. Representatives from the Electoral Commission, from the Independent Group at the Local Government Association, long-term councillors and new media campaigners will give workshops as the independent candidates gear up to the final make or break weeks of their electioneering.

Tamsin Omond, national coordinator of the Independent Network, said:

"Some people would like to run for local council positions but may not know that they can, particularly without selling out to a political party. We want to encourage them and show them that there is an alternative to party politics and that the Independent Network will support them. At a local level people want to be represented and many do not believe that party politicians will represent them.

"Independents are the only alternative to party politics. The Independent Network wants dedicated local people who are committed to the Bell Principles and to their constituents to stand for local government.”

www.independentnetwork.org.uk

The adverts can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/g3qo2k, http://bit.ly/g1ZZx5, WISEOWLS AD http://bit.ly/h8riQk,

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

For more information please visit: www.independentnetwork.org.uk. Alternatively you can contact the press office at 020 7609 0777 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 020 7609 0777 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

The Independent Network is a loose non- profit association that provides support to candidates who do not belong to a political party. The Independent Network was established to provide support for independent candidates, as no other organisation existed to support them.

Independent candidates do not have access to a large national party structure with its human and financial resources. The Independent Network was formed to attend to this inequality and continues to encourage the electorate to acknowledge the success and influence that independents are having in local Government and can have in Parliament.

The Independent Network does not impose any political views on the individuals and parties it supports or that support the Independent Network. However, endorsed candidates must be non-discriminatory and adhere to The Bell Principles.

The Bell Principles require that all endorsed independent candidates:

abide wholeheartedly by the spirit and letter of the Seven Principles of Public Life set out by Lord Nolan in 1995: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership
be guided by considered evidence, our real world experience and expertise, our constituencies and our consciences
be free from the control of any political party, pressure group or whip
be non-discriminatory, ethical and committed to pluralism
make decisions transparently and openly at every stage and level of the political process, enabling people to see how decisions are made and the evidence on which they are based
listen, consulting our communities constantly and innovatively
treat political opponents with courtesy and respect, challenging them when we believe they are wrong, and agreeing with them when we believe they are right
resist abuses of power and patronage and promote democracy at every level
claim expenses, salaries and compensation openly so the public can judge the value for money of our activities.

Pensioners £80bn 'out of pocket' from underestimated inflation rate

2011-02-21T03:09:00.000-08:00

Pensioners have lost out on around £80 billion because the rate of inflation was underestimated for the past 12 years, experts have warned.

Millions of pensioners missed out on hundreds of pounds a year because their retirement benefits had not increased to reflect the full rise in inflation.

The Bank of England admitted in its monthly inflation report, published this week, that the Consumer Price Index, to which many pensions are pegged, was 0.3 points a year higher than figures had previously stated between 1997 and 2009.

It meant that prices ended that period almost 4 per cent higher than recorded in the official figures released by the Office of National Statistics.

Experts said this meant that pensioners on the average pension of £16,500 would have seen their payments cut about £650 a year.

Many final salary pension schemes link pension payments to inflation. If the rate rises so does the annual payout to pensioners.

But the Department for Work and Pensions dismissed suggestions that benefit rates to pensions would be changed. It said this would be done only “if the official inflation figures were recalculated and republished”.

The CPI error came from a misreporting of clothing and shoe prices which were affected by heavy sales discounting.

The ONS “picked up seasonal falls in prices during the winter and summer sales, but did not fully capture the recovery in prices after sales had finished”, the Bank said.

The ONS changed the way it recorded the prices of clothes and shoes in January last year. But according to the report, the miscalculation was “likely to have a larger impact on the retail price index inflation than on CPI inflation”.

John Broome Saunders, from BDO Investment Management, estimated the cost to pensioners could be as high as £80bn.

“Had the inflation calculation been done correctly, many final salary scheme members would now find themselves entitled to a pension around 4 per cent higher than their actual entitlement,” he said.

“And this doesn't just affect pensioners – deferred scheme members have also been denied a similar level of increase."

Mike Smedley, a pensions partner at KPMG, the global accounting firm, said: "While these sound like small amounts, they add up over the life of a pensioner.

“This just highlights that the small-print lottery of company pension scheme rules will have an even greater impact than we previously thought."

Richard McIndoe, head of pensions at Strathclyde Pension Fund, one of the largest pension funds in the country, described the disclosures as “messy” and “unfortunate".

“Pensioners will feel aggrieved when they see this, and they think they should have received four per cent more,” he said.

A DWP spokeswoman denied that the changes to the calculation affected benefit rates or pensions.

“Inflation figures are determined by the ONS who regularly do work to improve their methods of calculation,” she said.

“Any changes in methodology do not mean that previous inflation rates were incorrect."

An ONS spokesman said the inflation measurement “improvements” were part of a programme to ensure figures were kept up-to-date.

“(The) ONS agrees with the Bank of England that the improved collection practices for clothing better reflects current consumer behaviour and have improved the measurement of clothing prices,” he said.

“Implementation of such improvements do not, of course, mean that there were measurement errors in the past.”

He declined to comment further. The BoE said responsibility for inflation calculations remained with the ONS.

Daily Telegraph

Elderly care: Where now for the NHS?

2011-02-16T05:11:00.000-08:00

The NHS in England is accused, by the Health Service Ombudsman, of failing older people.

A report into 10 complaints said the NHS was failing to meet even the most basic standards of care for older people.

The ombudsmen said these were "not isolated cases" - 18% of its complaints about the NHS last year were about the care of older people.

So what can the NHS learn from best practice?

According to The Alzheimer's Society, individual hospitals vary in their approach to looking after the elderly.

Some are taking the lead with measures such as "reminiscence rooms" to spark faded memories, colour-coded trays for patients who need help eating and clearer signposting to toilets and bathrooms.

The society produces a leaflet "This is Me" to support people with dementia going into hospital.

Relatives can add photos and information about family, favourite foods and medication to help nurses support the patient in an unfamiliar place.

Training is another approach that is being targeted.

Since September last year, the nursing and midwifery council made it mandatory for all nurses to be educated in how to care for people with a cognitive impairment, such as dementia.

Professor Ian Peate of the school of nursing at Thames Valley University said they teach students to treat all patients with respect, and as an individual.

"It's about promoting dignity, about looking at the individual as a whole person and making sure that the whole person's nature is taken into account as opposed to some individual aspect of their care."

Tender Loving Care

Other inspiration is coming from NHS staff themselves. Nicola Matthews, a nurse for 30 years, set up a website Kissing It Better, after going into hospital herself and being shocked by the standard of care.

The website, run with former nurse, Jill Fraser, is based on the idea that small simple things can make life easier for patients.

This includes everything from the central tenet of giving simple tender loving care to putting family photos in a frame by the bed to remind staff that a patient is someone's brother, uncle, sister or father.

"You want staff to know that they are a person," says Matthews. "A much-loved grandfather rather than a little old person in bed. No one is just a little old person in a bed."

She says "communication is the key to the whole thing". And if someone has concerns about their or a relative's care they should speak up immediately and stand their ground.

She acknowledges this is not always easy, particularly for older patients.

"Nursing staff are in uniform - a part of the institution. Patients are in their pyjamas, in a public place."

Matthews says the name "Kissing it Better" is based on the idea of a child having a wound "kissed better".

She believes not that much has changed, from the patient's perspective - since Florence Nightingale's day.

They still need fresh air, respect, good food at reasonable times, clean sheets, clean wards, and the assurance that all their needs will be met.

"We want nursing staff on our side," she adds. "Most are doing a fantastic job in immensely difficult circumstances."

2011-02-04T04:56:00.000-08:00

Citizens’ Advice Bureau centres across the country are under threat from closure due to massive cuts in their budget.

In particular five CAB’s in Birmingham are faced with immediate closure as the council, which provides £600,000 per year has decided to stop funding its service. The government’s idea of ‘Big Society’ appears to be very different to that of the Community and Voluntary sector.

The Citizens Advice service is one of the largest volunteer organisations in the UK with over 20,000 volunteers. The majority of these are part time volunteer advisers. To cut funding further when historically CAB’s have been on the brunt of cuts before, is an affront to a decent society and yet another example of the brutal nature of these cuts.
All bureaux try to ensure their services are accessible to all sections of the community, so that provision can be made for the housebound, immigrant communities, rural inhabitants, elderly and disabled as appropriate.
The government has claimed that the way cuts are made is up to the councils, yet the amount of money they are asking to cut from their budget means unreasonable demands are being made. Washing their hands of it is typical, and unfair. Most cuts could be avoided if the government chose to ensure big corporations paid their due in tax or a levy against the banks that threw us into this mess in the first place was given back. The public bailout of RBS and Lloyds TSB cost the tax payer £1.5 trillion. In addition, the cuts that are being made are taking place too quickly and without thought.

Wise Owls are going to monitor and highlight the attacks the government are making on the vital services that affect the every day life of people who rely on those services.

Is there something you thing we should cover, or if there is a topic you want to cover, go to our forums and start one up. http://www.wiseowls.co.uk/Forums/index.php

AGE welcomes the support of the EP Intergroup on Ageing for a coordinated and holistic approach to active and healthy ageing

2011-01-28T08:01:00.000-08:00

“To do it better, let’s do it together”, declared Mr Lambert Van Nistelrooij, chair of the debate on the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing in the European Parliament on 27 January 2011, which called for a coordination of activities between the EU Partnership and the European Year 2012 on Active Ageing.

The event, organised jointly by AGE Platform Europe and the European Parliament Intergroup on Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity one day before the end of the consultation launched by the European Commission, brought together a wide range of stakeholders including EU officials from the three EU institutions, public health organisations, trade unions, insurance companies and private sector.

Opening the debate, Mr Robert Madelin, DG INFSO, presented the initiative as a “triple win” situation. “Partnership’ is of key importance to meeting the needs of society and its citizens and this initiative”, he explained “wins on three fronts since it promotes sustainable healthcare systems, improving healthy ageing and opening up new business opportunities”.

“The European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing should seek to promote a broader vision of active and healthy ageing since this is the best way to optimise opportunities for physical, social and mental health that enable older people to take an active part in society without discrimination and for them to continue to enjoy an independent and good quality of life,” stressed Anne-Sophie Parent, AGE Secretary General, when presenting a summary of AGE’s answer to the EU consultation.

“The EU Year 2012 and the European Partnership will play very complementary roles” she explained. “While the objectives of the Year are to get all relevant stakeholders to take a political commitment to act, the Partnership should provide the means and resources to translate these commitments into reality in a coherent and sustainable way. These two EU processes should be mutually reinforcing to avoid a waste of energies and resources,” concluded Ms Parent.

Forestry sell off

2011-01-28T03:22:00.000-08:00

Wise Owls like you are upset about the idea of the government selling off our forests. We have decided to ask the Department for Environment Food And Rural Affairs that we know you would like answers to. We have asked them for a repsonse which we will post here.

1) Why in the consultation paper is there no option for anyone to say they oppose the sell off?
2) Is this because you know the majority of people will be opposed to the sell off?
3) This misleads the public into thinking they have a say in whether the forest will be sold or not, when they don’t have that choice. Do you agree?
4) This will be considered by many to be undemocratic. Do you agree?
5) Does Caroline Spelman understand that the public are aware of the ommission and will see this as a further errosion of trust in the way politicians work?
6) Have Defra been presenting the option of the sales of forests to any private companies already?

Nine Lives Media Looking for Over 50s for BBC Panorama

2011-01-27T08:30:00.000-08:00

Are you 50 plus and about to be made redundant in the next couple of weeks? Are you 50 something and have been made redundant, and still have young children to support? Have you been unemployed for 12 months or more?

Are you prepared to talk to a current affairs team about your experience of losing your job and problems you've had finding work?

Contact the programme researcher Claire Judge on 0161 832 2007 or email Claire.Judge@ninelivesmedia.co.uk

'Ageist' jury duty limit scrapped

2011-01-26T07:55:00.000-08:00

The age limit for people taking part in jury service in Scotland has been removed, meaning anyone aged 65 or over can now sit as a juror in court cases.

The Scottish government said the age limit was "outdated and ageist" and failed to recognise the extra life experience older people could offer.

The ban on over-65s serving as jurors had been in place since 1980.

But changes were made under the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act, which passed last year.

The Scottish government said the move would boost the pool of potential jurors available to Scotland's courts and ease the burden on younger members of the public who may have to juggle family and work commitments.

Valuable contribution

Under the new arrangements those aged 71 and over who do not want - or feel able - to serve on a jury will have the right to be excused.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: "Scotland's jury service system was outdated, ageist and in need of modernisation.

"Scots continue to live active lives long after retirement and they make a valuable contribution to communities up and down the country.

"The idea that they should be debarred from taking part in jury duty was frankly ridiculous, insulting and it is time for change."

Mr MacAskill said juries should be a true reflection of society.

Currently those attending court for jury service have a right to be excused for five years, whether they serve or not.

Under the new law, those who attend but are not selected only have a right to be excused for two years.

Each year 150,000 people are called for jury service of which about 10% are selected.

BBC news

2011-01-17T06:13:00.000-08:00

Older workers are worse off for redundancy, recruitment and reemployment Wise Owls research reveals

Over 50s council workers are being made redundent at over 3 times the rate of the their younger counterparts, new research has revealed today.

The stark findings came to light when Wise Owls, the leading over 50s support agency, used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain statistics on the age diversity of employees within all the National and London borough councils.

The data revealed that over 50s made up on average nearly 60% of all redunduncies within the councils. This is over three times the average of the UK workforce nationally, which also shows over 50s redundancies across the UK to be at their worst rate for over a decade (ONS). These figures come at a time when massive cuts are still to take place throughout the public sector, leaving older workers feeling unfairly targetted.

Further condemnation focussed on the recruitment practices of the councils after Wise Owls data showed the over 50s are less than half as likely to be recruited than the under 50s. The proportion of new recruits to the councils in the last year who were over 50 accounted for as little as 18% of recruits for County councils just and 10% of recruits in London Boroughs. This is despite 35% of the councils’ workforce being made up of over 50s.

A further blow to the job security of older workers is the liklihood of over 50s finding reemployment. Analysis of the ONS data showed that since the recession began, the remployment rate of over 50s has fallen to its lowest level in a decade. In the ‘boom’ years of 2004-2006, over 50s accounted for over 20% of all reemployment nationally. In the last year that figure fell to 16%.

It is clear that age is now the leading factor in making staff redundant and that it is the over 50s women and men from all backgrounds who will take the biggest hit from the Coalition’s cuts.

Chris Walsh - Director of Wise Owls, commented ‘There seems to be a complacancy within government that by forcing staff aged 50+ to take redudancy it will be less painful than for younger workers. Traditionally older workers have been ‘encouraged’ to take ‘voluntary’ redundancy when cuts are needed and it looks as if that mindset has not changed. However experience from the last cull of older council workers in the 90s showed that those made redundant often failed to get another job, leaving themselves and their families in poverty, while denuding the council of key knowledge and experience, which meant some had to be re-hired as consultants. We now offer a helpline for older workers to find them meaningful work and a sympathetic ear’

Wise Owls carried out the research as part of their wider ‘Age Equality’ campaign aimed at promoting age diversity in the workplace, demanding that the government carry out an Age Equality Impact Assessment to include an age audit of employees across the public sector.

Mr. Walsh said, “We are forced to use the FOI to get this vital information as the government has refused up till now to analyse the impact of the cuts on age, either in relation to the numbers being laid off or by who suffers from the impact of the cuts in public services. There are no existing government baseline figures to show whether age equality in the workplace is improving or getting worse, and we think this is because either they don’t care or do not want the public to know the full extent of employment ageism in the public sector. These statistics offer a starting point for the government to take up this issue by publishing a league table of all public sector employers in relation to age and employment and to start to carry out and publish age impact assessments of their cuts. This blatant attack on staff because of their age is both immoral and illegal.”

Miriam O'Reilly wins Countryfile ageism claim

2011-01-11T04:27:00.000-08:00

Ex-Countryfile host Miriam O'Reilly has won an employment tribunal against the BBC on the grounds of ageism and victimisation - but not sexism.

The 53-year-old claimed she had been unfairly dropped from the rural affairs show when it moved to a primetime Sunday evening slot in 2009.

O'Reilly, who was seeking compensation for alleged sex and age discrimination, said the outcome had "implications for all broadcasters, not just the BBC".
The BBC said it accepted the findings.

In a statement, it added it would "be looking at the full details".

O'Reilly said she had endured "an incredibly stressful 14 months".

"I did this because it was the right thing to do - I couldn't have lived with myself if I'd just walked away.

"I'm so pleased the judges have agreed with me."
O'Reilly, along with Juliet Morris, 45, and Michaela Strachan, 42, lost her job on Countryfile ahead of its move to Sunday evenings.
Former Watchdog host Julia Bradbury, then 38, and Matt Baker, then 30, were among new presenters who joined the revamped programme while John Craven, then 68, was kept on.

Miriam O'Reilly presenting for the BBC in 2006
O'Reilly told the tribunal she was not given a reason for her departure and was told only only that Countryfile was being "refreshed".
"It is not an exaggeration to say that I was devastated by this news," she said.
"Being dropped from the programme, I believe because of my age and sex, really affected my confidence."

But former BBC One controller Jay Hunt told the tribunal the claims were "entirely and categorically untrue" as well as "profoundly distressing and utterly offensive".
"I am a 43-year-old woman," she went on. "I have had my own difficulties surviving this industry.

"For that reason, the last thing I would ever do is ever discriminate against anyone on the basis of gender or age. Nothing could be further from my mind."

9 out of 10 IT Proffesionals Say Age Discrimination is Rife in Industry

2011-01-04T03:34:00.000-08:00

In a poll carried out by recruiter Greythorn, 9 out of 10 IT professionals have admitted that the industry discriminates on the grounds of age. Furthermore, 3 out of 4 believe that over 50s are specifially the target of such discrimination

The research, published today, also highlighted that whilst 7 out of 10 feel either "secure" or "very secure" in thier jobs, only 3 out of 10 over 50s feel the same way. Consequently, is comes as little suprise that while only 1 in 20 IT professionals feel "very insecure" in their jobs, three times as many over 50s feel the same.

Paul Winchester, managing director of Greythorn, believes this is because age is not seen as a asset in the IT industry, "In professions such as law or accountancy an employee is considered better at his or her job when they have built up a body of experience and knowledge in a certain area.

"But in IT, age is not necessarily perceived as an asset. Some people over 50 think they are unpopular with current and future employers because of the perception that experienced people cannot adapt to new technologies."

However, he questions the sensibility of such a narrow minded view, "Yes, Generation Y have grown up with web 2.0 et al – but does that really give them an edge? Is it worth losing the in-depth knowledge, man management skills and experience of the over fifties in the pursuit of youth?"

From Check4Jobs UK

2010-12-22T09:12:00.000-08:00

Thousands of older workers across the UK are faced with the prospect of entering the New Year without any work. The cuts, though affecting all ages in employment are set to hit the over 50s the hardest.

In response to this cull, an innovative new project aimed at assisting the over 50s with specialist support and advice will launch in January.

The new Help Line project Promoting Age Diversity (PAD) will be delivered by Wise Owls a non-profit and leading over 50s support & employment agency, following funding from Trust for London. The project will provide vital tips, support and information that will arm the job seeker with the tools they need to take on the process of looking for meaningful employment and helping them overcome their situation.

Wise Owls director Chris Walsh said "Promoting Age Diversity (PAD) will help 50s job seekers from across London and the UK get specialist support both on-line and by phone from the Wise Owls experts."

He continued "The reason this service has never been so important is clear. In the past the public sector has started its redundancy programmes by targeting their older staff, and it looks increasingly likely this will be happening again."

This is a major improvement for jobseekers who have often fallen foul of the postcode lottery. This extension to will allow anyone in the UK to call and receive the help they need.

This means that over 50s job seekers from across London and the UK can get specialist support both on-line and by phone from the Wise Owls experts. Wise Owls has hundreds of job vacancies on its two websites http://www.wiseowls.co.uk/ and http://www.equalityrecruitment.co.uk/, and has contacts with thousands of employers who understand the benefits of employing staff of all ages and is able to offer expert free advice to help older people retain and get a job. This support is available to all over 50s regardless of postcode.

The number for the help line is 0207 278 5191 - email recruitment@wiseowls.co.uk

EFB Mock Tribunal with Lewis Silkin

2010-12-20T08:32:00.000-08:00

The Employers Forum on Belief in association with Lewis Silkin invites you to a Mock Tribunal. The only time you’ll get to go to a tribunal where everyone’s a winner! This is a unique opportunity to hear from a lawyer, tribunal judge and barrister in a simulated hearing focussed on discrimination on grounds of religion or belief. Experience the drama and tension of a tribunal first hand but without paying the penalty if you get things wrong. Guided by legal experts Lewis Silkin, you will learn – the proceedings, the evidence required, the possible objective justifications and potential questions, who might be called and what will they be asked. And a chance to cast your verdict. Whether you’re an in-house lawyer, HR specialist or line manager you are going to want to be at this event.

Price:

£150 for EFB members

£275 for non members

Please click here to complete a booking form for this event.

DELEGATE'S COMMENTS FROM PREVIOUS MOCK TRIBUNAL

"It was extremely useful and the topic was highly relevant".Emma Smith, Herbert Smith LLP.

"It was good to debate the issues and see that these things are rarely clear cut,"Sharon Kyle, Sodexo.

To find out what happens in mock tribunals click here.

Event details

Start Date:	18/01/2011
End Date:	18/01/2011
Times:	09.30-12.30
Location:	Lewis Silkin LLP, 5 Chancery Lane, Clifford's Inn, London EC4A 1BL

Unemployment On The Rise Yet Again

2010-12-16T05:07:00.000-08:00

Figures released yesterday from the Office of National Statistics have shown that unemployment across the UK has risen by 35,000 in the last 3 months.

With unemployment now standing at the 2.5 million mark, the increase has been widely blamed on recent public spending cuts introduced by the government in their comprehensive spending review. This is of particular concern to over 50s, as early indications from Wise Owls' research has shown that they are felling the brunt of public sector job losses.

The research is ongoing, with the findings expected to be published early in the new year, and is part of a larger Age Equality Impact Assessment Campaign being conducted by Wise Owls.

NGO Coalition on Intergenerational Solidarity welcomes EPSCO decision to declare 2012 European Year for Active Ageing & Solidarity between Generations

2010-12-10T04:36:00.000-08:00

We are pleased that the EPSCO Council supported our call and has decided to extend the title for the proposed European Year 2012 to “Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations”.

We welcome the objectives of the Year, i.e. “to encourage and support the efforts of Member States, their regional and local authorities, social partners, civil society and the business community to promote active ageing and to do more to mobilise the potential of the rapidly growing population in their late 50s and above, thereby creating a society for all ages and fostering solidarity and cooperation between generations”.

Together with a large coalition of European NGOs, we have campaigned for several years now to promote a vision of a society for all ages based on greater solidarity and cooperation between generations. Through this campaign we have collected examples of good practice and recommendations to help policy makers at local, national and European level design policies that strengthen intergenerational solidarity through active ageing. Empowering older people to age in good health and to contribute more actively to the labour market and to their communities is necessary to help us cope with our demographic challenge in a way that is fair and sustainable for all generations.

Conservative MP supports campaign but fails to endorse it

2010-12-08T03:50:00.001-08:00

Wise Owls received a response today from the Conservative MP for Cardiff North Jonathan Evans. The letter, which is in response to our Equality Impact Assessment Campaign agreed with the sentiment of our campign, but failed to go that step further and support the suggestions made within it.

The campaign asks the government to assess the implications of the cuts to those most in need that come under the equality banner. In addition Wise Owls are asking for the government to measure the cuts on the workforce - taking a measurement of exisitng employees, those recruited and those made redudant by age.

It is our understanding that until we have a baseline figure, we are unable to tell whether staff are being targetted because of age when it comes to employment. Therefore it has been left to us to accumalate these statistics and that is what we are in the process of doing now.

Last year Wise Owls embarked on a research of all employees in the London borough councils and the Englsih National councils using the FOI Act. Our results and conclusion can be viewed here. Ageism in the public sector workforce - Wise Owls Age Audit

The Age Discrimination Act introduced in 2006 and updated in 2010 though welcome, will fail to be as protective as it need be unless statistic ananlysis is included iwithin its framework.

For the full letter from Jonathan Evans - click here.

GP's Guilty of Age Discrimination

2010-12-02T09:18:00.000-08:00

A new report has revealed that older people are less likely to recieve referals from thier GP than younger people with similar symptoms.

In a study contucted by a team from the King's Fund and University College London, which compared referal for three common symptoms in patients of different ages, sex and wealth, people aged over 85 were found to be 61% less likely to be refered for postmenopausal bleeding and 32% less likely to be refered for hip pain. The team analysed data for 130,000 patients from 326 practices throughout the UK over a 6 year period.

The report published yesterday in the British Medical Journal did not examin the reasoning behind GPs decision, however Michelle Mitchell of Age UK stressed that "A doctor's decision to refer patients must be based solely on the patient's clinical need, not their age. Age discrimination in health provision will be unlawful from 2012 and it can't come a moment too soon for older people in need of medical care."

Royal Wedding Day Will Fall On European Day Of Solidarity Between Generations

2010-11-24T03:01:00.000-08:00

The wedding day of Prince William and Ms Middleton, announced yesterday, will take place on the 3^rd European Day of Solidarity between Generations and will give a special dimension to the numerous activities organised on that day across the European Union.

AGE, together with 13 EU NGOs, has been running a campaign to promote greater solidarity and cooperation between generations. On 29 April 2009, this NGO coalition launched the first EU Day of Solidarity between Generations which was celebrated across the EU.

More information on the European Day of Solidarity between Generations can be found at:

http://www.age-platform.eu/en/age-policy-work/solidarity-between-generations/campaign.

"Addressing Dementia Should Go Beyond The Strictly Medical Approach" Says AGE EU

2010-11-24T02:46:00.001-08:00

“With the rapid demographic ageing, the prevalence of dementia is expected to increase sharply in the near future. A better coordination of social and health policies on old age dementia is therefore needed to tackle mental health diseases and to ensure a decent life to all patients with dementia and their families. We need a holistic approach to create a dementia friendly society”, highlighted Anne-Sophie Parent on the eve of the EU Presidency Conference on Dementia

In the last few years, the European Union has acknowledged the growing prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and has called for coordinated action through initiatives, such as the Joint Programming Initiative on Alzheimer and other neurodegenerative diseases launched last April to boost research in that area.

AGE Platform Europe has just issued a position paper stressing the need to tackle all dimensions of mental health diseases, from prevention to measures in support of informal carers, and suggesting seven recommendations to EU and national policy makers:

1. Create an “Alzheimer friendly” environment;

2. Improve quality of life of patients without relying only on medication;

3. Support informal carers;

4. Ensure adequate financing to tackle inequalities and ensure quality;

5. Change the way society looks at dementia;

6. Promote healthy ageing and well-being of older people;

7. Use the Open Method of Coordination to develop and exchange good practices.

This position paper entitled “Position on Alzheimer’s Disease and other Dementias: Widen the debate beyond care and treatment issues” can be accessed on the AGE website at: http://www.age-platform.eu/images/stories/AGE_PositionPaper_Dementia_Nov10.doc.

European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing Conference Announced

2010-11-22T07:19:00.000-08:00

The draft agenda for the upcoming Stakeholders Consultation Conference on European Innovation on Active and Healthy aging was released today. The conference, which will be held this Friday in Brussels will feature a series of speechs, as well as open discussions with the expert panel and audience

Click here to view the full draft agenda

Another Wise Owl Enters The Jungle

2010-11-19T06:38:00.000-08:00

Comedian and novelist Jenny Eclair has become the latest over 50 to enter I'm A Celebrity

Her arrival brings the number of over 50s in the camp to 5, only just shy of the 50% mark. This strong representation is extremly encouraging and proves that the babyboomers are just as capable when it comes to extreme survival as younger generations!

Informal Guide to help the elderly avoid accidents

2010-11-16T08:05:00.000-08:00

Winter is a particularly difficult time of year for everyone, but particularly for senior citizens. As the temperatures drop and the nights draw in the likelihood of accidents and injuries increase. An informal guide has been produced to help the elderly stay safe and avoid accidents during winter and here are just three of their tips:

1) Not to walk on icy/snowy paths – instead look for routes which are dry or have been cleared

2) Wall mounted heaters are preferable to portable ones as they do not pose a tripping hazard

3) Replace old slippers and canes as these can become worn out and smooth, offering little protection to winter conditions

To download the guide click here

Support the Wise Owls in I'm A Celebrity: Get me Out Of Here

2010-11-16T07:52:00.000-08:00

As ever, each year we support the Wise Owls/Babyboomer representatives on I'm A Celebrity, and we usually win! This year, the candidates we urge you to support are:

Gillian McKeith A classic example of a nagging female babyboomer. Can she take as much as she gives? (probably not, judging by her coffin performance!)

Nigel Havers The Mr.Smoothie babyboomer.

Britt Ekland A 68er sex symbol and excellent in her Swedish maternal role.

Linford Christie Sprinting legend whose had more gold medals than hot dinners!

Who do you want to win? Vote in our new poll here

Over 55's Out Of Work For 20% Longer Than 24-54 Year Old's

2010-11-15T03:09:00.000-08:00

It has been reveald that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 55's can expect to on average be out of work for 35 weeks, 20% longer than those aged 24-54.

Trude Diamond, who has been out of work for two years, strongly suspects that the companies with who she has had interviews are reluctant to employ people they believe will retire soon.

Psychologist Carrell Chadwell suggests tackling this issue head on. “They’re likely to wonder how long you are going to stay. You want to mention that. Tell them what your goals are and that you will be there at least several years.”

Government Aims To 'Make Work Pay'

2010-11-12T04:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the coalition government announced new plans to overhaul the benefit system for the long term unemployed, in a effort to 'make work pay'.

The headline project will see the current complex web of work related benefits simplified into a single, unverisal credit, which aims to make it simpler to claim and less vulnerable to fraud. Claimers will also get to keep more of their income when they move into employment, however under tough new rules they will have their benefits stopped for 3 years if they refuse more than 3 job offers.

The new system will mostly be dealt with over the internet, despite an estimated 1.5 million jobseekers not having access to it.

The new scheme is expected to begin to be rolled out by 2013, being fully implented sometime after 2015.

For more information, click here

Minister Unveils More Generous Basic State Pension Proposals

2010-11-10T04:49:00.000-08:00

The Government is considering plans to increase the state pension to about £140 a week to ensure everybody has a “decent” income in retirement.

Ministers are drawing up plans to sweep away the current means-tested system and introduce a new flat-rate pension which would replace the basic state pension, the second state pension and pension credit.

At a £140 a week, the new ‘universal’ pension would be worth considerably more than the present basic state pension of £97.65 a week for a single person and £156.15 for a couple. On top of this means-tested top-ups ensure the poorest single pensioners have an income of at least £132.60 and couples get £202.40.

Ministers claim that scrapping the present complicated and expensive system is expected to save enough money from reduced bureaucracy to pay for the new pension and that the move would benefit everybody in retirement, including the better off.

It seems the new system would probably be based on residency in Britain and not on National Insurance contributions.

The proposed new system would particular benefit women, many of whom lose out on the current state pension arrangements after taking time out of work to bring up children.

Ministers are planning to publish a Green Paper before the end of the year, which will be followed by a consultation on the proposals. They hope to implement the new system before the end of this Parliament in 2015.

Rugby Player 'Too Old To Play'

2010-11-09T02:58:00.000-08:00

Last year, 55 year old Stephen Clee stepped in to play against Trecorchy Seconds after one of his players was forced off injured. Now, with injury crisis mounting at his new club, Tonyrefail RFC, he has offered up his services again, only to be told he his 'too old to play'.

Upset by this apparent descrimination, Mr. Clee has written to the Equality and Human Rights Commission of Wales for advise and has also threaten to quit his current club.

“This is not only important to me but to all over-50s who believe they are fit and able enough to still play rugby at a local level, in fact many of us over 50 are fitter than some under-30s who turn out regularly on Saturdays to play,” he said.

“I think I can deal with the physicality of it all. I wouldn’t even attempt to put myself in the position if I didn’t think I was. I think I’m old enough and experienced enough having played enough rugby in the past to be able to say to the second team captain I feel I’m capable of playing at least half a game.”

60th Anniversary of the European Convention of Fundamental Rights

2010-11-04T05:14:00.000-07:00

Don’t let the crisis deprive older people of their fundamental rights!

"We should be rejoicing today but the austerity measures introduced recently in some Member States are depriving many older people of their fundamental rights", deplored Anne-Sophie Parent, AGE Director, on the eve of the 60^th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights.

While AGE welcomes the decisive steps that have been taken to securing a Europe of fundamental rights through the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights and the commitment of both the European Parliament and the Council to the promotion of fundamental rights as a priority for their future work, AGE questions what is actually being done to safeguard the fundamental rights of older people and flags up why this must now be a priority.

“Several Member States use the excuse of the on-going crisis to introduce drastic cuts in the social protection of older people”, stressed Ms Parent. “The rights of the elderly, in particular older women, are being threatened,” she added, “and these reforms will have a detrimental impact on the most vulnerable members of our society”.

“The new Lisbon Treaty (Article 9 on the social clause and Article 25 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU) creates a new legal framework to justify EU action to protect the fundamental rights of older people and we would like to see some concrete commitment at EU and national level to ensure a dignified life to all, including older people,” concluded Ms Parent

END

Link to the press release on AGE website: http://www.age-platform.eu/en/age-a-the-media/age-communication-to-the-media-press-releases/1125-dont-let-the-crisis-deprive-older-people-of-their-fundamental-rights

Senate campaigns for older people in Wales

2010-10-25T03:44:00.001-07:00

Four national older people's organisations are joining to create a senate to give older people a stronger voice in Wales.

The Welsh Senate of Older People will lobby the UK and Welsh Assembly Governments on matters such as age discrimination, housing and health.

The senate has been launched at the assembly in Cardiff Bay.

It will also work to improve a wide range of services to the elderly in Wales.

The four organisations joining together are the National Old Age Pensioners Association of Wales, the National Pensioners Convention Wales, Older People's Advisory Group Cymru and Pensioners Forum Wales.

A spokesperson for the senate said: "The population of Wales is ageing at a faster rate than any other part of the UK, and in 20 years time one in three Welsh adults will be aged 65 or over.

"Older people's issues have become increasingly prominent in recent years and the creation of the senate is a significant milestone in the journey to unite older people the length and breadth of Wales."

Welsh Office Minister David Jones, who launched the senate, said: "Government, both in London and Cardiff, needs to hear about the concerns of older people.

"By 2020, half the population of the UK will be aged 50 and over.

"That is why we genuinely want to hear about the issues facing older people today, so that government action meets their needs."

Orginal article from the BBC

Fears That Abolition of DRA Will Bring More Age Discrimination Claims

2010-10-22T03:35:00.000-07:00

Nearly half of employers (48 per cent) surveyed by the employers organisation, the CBI, are worried about an increase in age-related claims after the removal of the national default retirement age (DRA) in April.

The research found that four out of five (79 per cent) of the employers who responded use the DRA of 65, and only 16 per cent have no set retirement age. More than half (60 per cent) think removing the DRA will have a negative impact on younger staff with fewer promotion opportunities and nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) are concerned about the readiness of managers to deal with declining performance in the absence of the DRA.

Original article: TAEN

Impacts Of The Spending Review For Over 50s

2010-10-21T05:30:00.000-07:00

George Osborne promised that under the spending review, elderly people would no longer 'fall between the cracks' and many universal benefits were kept. With the spending review being published yesterday, has he remaind true to his word?

Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director at Age UK, said: "Generally Age UK believes that this is a fair deal for older people... We are relieved that universal benefits such as winter fuel payments have been retained."We welcome the Department of Health's decision to find an extra £2bn for social care but at the moment it is unclear whether this will represent a rise in spending in real terms, given the swingeing cut of 26 per cent to government funding for councils. We are disappointed that the Chancellor has presented the entire amount as additional funding whereas it appears unlikely that this is the case.

"People at the end of their working lives will be disappointed that the rise in state pension age has been brought forward by six years as this will impact most on the poorest by shortening the retirements of those living in areas of low life expectancy. However we understand that difficult decisions have had to be made in the current climate."

Ros Altmann of Saga was, however, more critical of the impact on the over-50s. She said: "It will be vital for older people to be able to find work, otherwise they will lose out even more because the Pension Credit, which currently is paid from age 60, will not be paid till age 66 by 2020. That means any men or women who cannot find a job will be forced onto unemployment benefit, which is much less than the Pension Credit available now.
"We need urgent reforms of the labour market, ensuring an end to age discrimination and also making sure that the Government's initiatives for helping people back to work are focussed on older workers, not just the young.

"The most vulnerable are those over-50s who cannot find work, whose private pensions have not worked out or who have fallen victim to the vagaries and failures in the personal finance sector, as well as those who have mental health issues such as dementia. They will lose the option of claiming Pension Credit from age 60 and may be forced onto unemployment and disability benefits which are less generous."

Original Article: Channel 4 News

Commission launches landmark report: 'How fair is Britain?'

2010-10-11T04:39:00.000-07:00

A landmark report released today by the Commission paints a picture of a largely tolerant and open-minded society, in which some equality gaps have closed over the past generation.

But ‘How fair Is Britain?’, the most comprehensive compilation of evidence on discrimination and disadvantage ever compiled in Britain, also shows that other long-standing inequalities remain undiminished; and that new social and economic fault-lines are emerging as Britain becomes older and more ethnically and religiously diverse. The Review also identifies recession, public service reform, management of migration and technological change as major risk factors in progress towards a fairer society.

The first in a series of reports laid before Parliament every three years, ‘How fair is Britain?’ draws on a range of major datasets and surveys, as well as the Commission's own research reports, to build a portrait of Britain in 2010. The 700-page report provides the independent evidence and benchmarks for reviewing the state of social justice.

And it identifies five critical ‘gateways to opportunity’ which the Commission says can make the difference between success and failure in life: Health and Well-being: Education and Inclusion; Work and Wealth; Safety and Security; and Autonomy and Voice

The Commission's findings cover all seven areas of formal discrimination set out in law: age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation and transgender status. For the first time, it analyses the gaps in treatment and achievement of these seven social groupings beyond solely economic outcomes - by including factors such as personal autonomy and political influence (‘voice’) alongside education, health, standard of living and personal safety.

The three yearly assessment in the Review, mandated by the Equality Act 2006 will:

provide an evidence base to ensure that action to tackle inequality and ensure fairness is properly targeted
ensure that scarce resources are used in order to protect the vulnerable and disadvantaged from the worst effects of recession, deficit reduction and public service reform
set objective benchmarks to assess the ‘fairness factor’ in public policy

The report finds that over recent years, public attitudes have become much more tolerant of diversity, and much less tolerant of discrimination. This can be seen in relation to most of the major equality characteristics, including race, gender and sexual orientation.

Opposition to working for an ethnic minority boss or inter-ethnic marriages has dropped; stereotypical views about the roles that men and women should play in family and society have become less prevalent. And perhaps the most dramatic change is in relation to LGB people: a gap of less than 20 years separated the parliamentary debates about Section 28 and civil partnership.

Evidence suggests that the public is strongly in favour of the generic principles of equality, dignity and respect for all. This consensus was reflected by each of the main political parties, which went into the 2010 General Election with some form of explicit commitment to equality.

However, the Review also highlights areas of anxiety. There is evidence that the public thinks that both racial and religious prejudice are on the increase, though this may reflect heightened sensitivities. British people are broadly positive about the economic contribution of many immigrants, but the ‘immigration paradox’ remains: about three quarters of the public say that they are concerned about the scale of immigration at a national level - but about the same proportion feels that immigration is not a problem for their own communities.

The Review also highlights significant gaps in knowledge and data about particular groups - for example, transgender people - and the impact on our ability to tell whether the ideals of equality and fairness are being translated into a practical change for the better in these people’s real lives.

Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said:

“This Review holds up the mirror to fairness in Britain. It is the most complete picture of its kind ever compiled. It shows that we are a people who have moved light years in our attitudes to all kinds of human difference, and in our desire to be a truly fair society - but that we are still a country where our achievements haven't yet caught up with our aspirations.

“Sixty years on from the Beveridge report and the creation of the welfare state, his five giants of squalor, disease, ignorance, want and idleness have been cut down to size, though they still stalk the land.

“But in the 21st century we face a fresh challenge - the danger of a society divided by the barriers of inequality and injustice. For some, the gateways to opportunity appear permanently closed, no matter how hard they try; whilst others seems to have been issued with an ‘access all areas’ pass at birth. Recession, demographic change and new technology all threaten to deepen the fault lines between insiders and outsiders.

“Our Review has identified the five ‘great gateways’ to opportunity that could open the way to millions.”

The ‘gateways’ identified in the report are

1. Health and Well-being:

Men and women from the highest social class can expect to live up to seven years longer, on average, than those from lower socio-economic groups (based on life expectancy at birth).
Black Caribbean and Pakistani babies are twice as likely to die in their first year as Bangladeshi or White British babies.

2. Education and Inclusion:

Girls achieve better results than boys at age five in England, and at age 16 in England, Scotland and Wales, and in every ethnic group. In 2009 female university students outnumbered men by a ratio of roughly 4:3. Women are also more likely than men to get first-class or upper second-class degrees.
Girls and women tend to be concentrated in some courses which tend to lead to relatively poorly-rewarded jobs.
Forty-four per cent of Black, Indian and Pakistani students are at ‘new’ universities compared to 35 per cent of others. Eight per cent of Black students are at Russell Group institutions, compared to 24 per cent of White students.
Seventeen per cent of children with special educational needs get five good GCSEs including English and Maths, compared to 61 per cent of children without identified special needs.
At age five, 35 per cent of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals achieved a good level of development, compared to 55 per cent of pupils not eligible for free school meals.
Apart from Gypsy and Traveller children, the performance of White British boys on free school meals at GCSE is the lowest of any group defined by gender, free school meals status and ethnic group; by contrast the highest performing group at sixteen are Chinese girls, with those on free school meals outranking every other group except better-off Chinese girls.

3. Work and Wealth:

The mean gender pay gap for women and men working full-time in 2009 was 16.4 per cent; and progress today appears to be grinding to a halt. Women aged 40 earn on average 27 per cent less than men of the same age. Women with degrees are estimated to face only a four per cent loss in lifetime earnings as a result of motherhood, while mothers with no qualifications face a 58 per cent loss.
By the age of 22-24, figures suggest that 44 per cent of Black people are not in education, employment or training, compared to fewer than 25 per cent of White people. One in four Bangladeshi and Pakistani women work, compared with nearly three in four White British women, and only 47 per cent of Muslim men and 24 per cent of Muslim women are employed.
Pakistani and Bangladeshi men’s earnings fall 13 per cent and 21 per cent below what might be expected, and Black African Christian and Chinese men experience pay penalties of 13 per cent and 11 per cent.
Fifty per cent of disabled adults are in work, compared to 79 per cent of non-disabled adults.

4. Safety and Security:

Two-thirds of lesbian, gay and transgender secondary students report that they have been victims of often severe bullying (17 per cent of those bullied reported having received death threats). Homophobic bullying also seems to be more common in faith schools.
Domestic violence is associated with a higher rate of repeat-victimisation than any other kind of violent or acquisitive crime: in 2009/10, 76 per cent of all incidents of domestic violence in England and Wales were repeat offences.
The number of women prisoners has nearly doubled since 1995 in England and Wales, and since 2000 in Scotland.
On average, five times more Black people than White people are imprisoned in England and Wales and there is now greater disproportionality in the number of Black people in prisons in Britain than in the USA.

5. Autonomy and Voice:

One in eight people in England provide unpaid care to adults.
One in four women and nearly one in five men in their fifties are carers.
The number of people aged 65 and over with care and support needs is estimated to rise by 87 per cent between 2001 and 2051.
It is projected that due to the increasing age of the population, nearly 1.3 million disabled older people will require informal care by 2041 up by around 90 per cent.
175,000 people under 18 have caring responsibilities and a disproportionate number of young carers are from certain ethnic minority backgrounds (including Bangladeshi, Black African, Black Caribbean and Pakistani backgrounds).
Women represent less than a quarter of Westminster MPs and barely three in 10 councillors in England. Four per cent of Westminster MPs are from an ethnic minority background.

> Find out more about the 'How fair is Britain?' report

Ends

Notes to Editors

For more press information contact the Commission’s media office on 020 3117 0255, out of hours 07767 272 818.

More information about the Review can be found on the Commission’s website at:

www.equalityhumanrights.com/howfairisbritain

Equality and Human Rights Commission

The Commission is a statutory body established under the Equality Act 2006, which took over the responsibilities of Commission for Racial Equality, Disability Rights Commission and Equal Opportunities Commission. It is the independent advocate for equality and human rights in Britain. It aims to reduce inequality, eliminate discrimination, strengthen good relations between people, and promote and protect human rights. The Commission enforces equality legislation on age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or transgender status, and encourages compliance with the Human Rights Act. It also gives advice and guidance to businesses, the voluntary and public sectors, and to individuals.

Counting the Cost of Machismo

2010-10-11T04:08:00.000-07:00

Counting the Cost of Machismo

By KATRIN BENNHOLD
Published: August 17, 2010

PARIS — When Alexandra Pascalidou, a Swedish-Greek writer and television host, joked on a Greek cooking show that dad rather than mom might make dinner for the children, her producer, she recalled, yelled into her earpiece to “cut that feminist nonsense.”

In Italy, a string of sex scandals involving Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi did not stop his camp from winning regional elections earlier this year, while further along the Mediterranean coast, the Spanish media routinely obsess more about the defense minister’s outfits than her policies.

Europe’s southern fringe, indebted and uncompetitive, has long been the euro zone’s weak link. But besides a sunny climate and shaky economic fundamentals, it also shares a long-entrenched machismo that is costing it dearly. As it turns out, the share of adult women in the paid workforce in the region lags men by almost 20 percentage points, compared with 12 points across the European Union, 9 in the United States and only 4 in Sweden.

Sexism, of course, is not the cause for Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, and in the short term, the euro’s prospects depend more on the right mixture of fiscal austerity and monetary stimulus than on sisterhood.

But in the longer term, women could well hold the key to overcoming a fundamental economic weakness that plagues not just Southern Europe but much of the rest of the Continent as well: An aging population and a shrinking workforce that is threatening to explode pension and health care budgets.

At stake is the ability of the world’s “lifestyle superpower” to sustain its cushy post-World War II entitlements like early retirement, free medicine and generous jobless benefits — in short, the treasured European welfare state itself.

“If Europeans want to maintain their social infrastructure, they have to get better at integrating women into the labor market,” said Stefano Scarpetta, deputy director of the employment and social affairs directorate at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the research arm of the world’s leading free-market democracies.

As elsewhere in the developed world, women already make up the majority of university graduates in Europe. Luring more of them into paid work would provide multiple dividends: raise economic output, particularly in services; foster greater consumption; and add more taxpayers today and tomorrow.

Kevin Daly, an economist at Goldman Sachs in London, reckons that fully closing the gap between male and female employment rates in the 16 countries sharing the euro would lift gross domestic product by as much as 13 percent; in Southern Europe, the gain would be closer to 20 percent. By contrast, raising trend productivity levels in the euro zone to the level in the United States would result in a 7 percent rise in G.D.P., Mr. Daly calculates.

“The potential gain from raising female participation is significantly larger than from raising productivity,” he said.

That is not to say that governments shouldn’t try to raise both. Indeed, sometimes the policy levers are identical, Mr. Scarpetta of the O.E.C.D. said, pointing to rigid hiring and firing rules in Greece and Italy that protect some unproductive workers and keep more talented women out of a job.

Similarly, while it challenges social traditions, removing tax incentives that keep women at home or raising the retirement age for women where it is lower than for men (Italy and Greece’s public sector, for example) would provide economic benefits at little or no fiscal cost.

Even generous subsidies for child care pay off: A 2002 study by the German Bundesbank found that public investment in day care in Germany on balance increased government revenues as more mothers returned to work.

And perhaps surprisingly, encouraging women to work out of the home also encourages them to have more babies, thus yielding more future taxpayers. Decades of experience in the Nordic countries show that once women are no longer forced to choose between employment and children, both go up.

Sweden, at the forefront of women’s liberation, boasts a female employment rate of 70 percent and a birthrate of about two children per woman, the highest in Europe along with Norway and France.

In Italy, a mere 46 percent of women work, and the birthrate is stuck at around 1.3. (In case you’re wondering: Sweden’s debt-to-G.D.P. ratio is expected to fall below 37 percent this year, while Italy’s future generations will have to shoulder the carrying costs of a whopping 115 percent burden.)

Southern European countries have the most to gain from courting female labor — precisely because the pool of women outside the job market is so large.

In Greece, the employment gap between the genders is almost 25 percentage points. In Italy it is 22 points; Spain, at 14 percentage points, is a lot closer to the E.U. average but still falls short. Portugal does better, with a 10-point gap, owing in part to its specialization in the textile and garment industries.

As an alternative to endless austerity, some politicians in the region have begun to see the economic potential of policies to help close the gap.

“Gender equality is no longer just a human rights issue, but an economic necessity,” said Maria Stratigaki, who is in charge of gender equality in the Greek government. She is using the budget crunch in her country to lobby for more “gender-budgeting” — rules that ensure men receive no more resources from the state than women.

Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of Spain was the first in the region to put the issue on the agenda, appointing a cabinet that is half women, passing anti-discrimination legislation and requiring companies to appoint more women to their boards.

At 53 percent, Spain’s female employment rate remains below the European average. But if its women over 45 have some of the lowest participation rates in Europe, those under 30 are not that far from Swedish levels.

The first thing Ms. Stratigaki did when she was appointed last November was translate Mr. Zapatero’s gender equality laws into Greek and distribute them in government circles.

“It might be difficult to turn Greece into Sweden — at least right away,” she remarked. “But maybe we can start by becoming a little more Spanish.”

Perhaps the current crisis, said Ms. Pascalidou, who moved from Athens back to Stockholm four years ago, will be remembered as a turning point for working women, just like labor shortages in Sweden in the 1960s served as a catalyst there.

“It’s a window of opportunity,” she said. “There’s nothing like a good economic argument to sell gender equality.”

AGE welcomes the very timely European Partnership Initiative on Healthy and Active Ageing

2010-10-08T10:06:00.001-07:00

European Partnership initiative (en français plus bas)

AGE welcomes the very timely European Partnership Initiative on Healthy and Active Ageing

“The European Partnership Initiative that is launched today by the European Commission will help create the supportive environment we need to promote healthy and active ageing and develop innovative solutions for our ageing population”, said Anne-Sophie Parent, Director of AGE. This joint initiative of Vice-President Kroes and Commissioner Dalli will pool efforts at EU and national level to develop both ICT and non ICT solutions to address the challenges faced by older people and support their full participation in society and the economy.

“This Partnership Initiative is very timely. It will seek to build synergies between what is done at European level and actions implemented at national/local level, and will set an excellent framework to encourage a wider range of stakeholders across the EU to work together on the promotion of active and healthy ageing, a key objective of the Europe 2020 Strategy and the theme of the recently announced European Year 2012”, added Parent. The EPI will seek to build bridges between research and market deployment and will promote user’s involvement in research and development of solutions which target them.

“We are happy that the European Commission has decided to adopt such a comprehensive approach. This should ensure that older people will be empowered to take full advantage of the knowledge society and to live independent and active lives for as long as possible”, concluded Ms Parent.

Link to the EC press release:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/1288&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=fr

END

Careers advice: Helping you negotiate the jobs market roller coaster

2010-09-30T03:16:00.000-07:00

I wonder if you think my age (57) could be a stumbling block when I apply for positions. I am more than capable of taking on new challenges but rarely get the opportunity. Diane, Neath

How do you get employers to view your CV when you are 50+? In the initial recruitment selection, employers reject anyone in this category.

Freddie, via email

These are just two of several letters I received from readers worried that their age was getting in the way of them finding a job. Their concerns represent a nasty side effect of the recession – despite all the focus on young people, a disproportionate number of older workers are unemployed and many are struggling to get back into work following redundancy, according to The Age and Employment Network.

However, there are several things Diane and Freddie should be doing to give themselves the best chance of finding a job, regardless of their age.

In Diane’s case, your CV is three pages long and extremely detailed. CVs should usually be a maximum of two pages. In the “key skills” section, you list 24 things you can do, but without providing examples of what they are or why they matter. Any employer looking at this long list would be overwhelmed by what it is you’re trying to tell them. For example, you list “merchandising” and “display building” but without explaining what you achieved in this area. You also list far more mundane skills like “text and photo on a mobile phone”. Who can’t do this these days?

I would pick out five key skills that really do set you apart from the rest (play on your experience if you can) and provide examples of your successes.

Next you must tailor your CV. It looks like you’ve got a wealth of experience in the retail industry, but rather than simply list job titles and dates, I would expand on a couple of roles which you feel would be most relevant to the job you’re applying for. Employers can afford to be choosy – your application must tell them why you’re the most suitable candidate.

If all else fails, Freddie, remove your age from your CV. It’s illegal for any employer to ask for it.

The renewables sector is set to create tens of thousands of jobs over the next few years. But very few recruitment agencies have job listings for the growing micro renewables industry, with sections covering solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, biomass, heat pumps and wind.

Eric, Dorset

The micro renewables industry – which designs devices that generate energy on a small scale – is still in its infancy, according to the big recruitment firms.

However, if you want work in this area you should be proactive and register with the big agencies like Reed, Hays or Kellysearch. As Mark Stuart, a business manager at Reed, says: “The micro renewables sector is not on a massive recruitment drive. But when roles do come up, individuals who have registered interest with us will be the first port of call on our database.”

It’s also worth targeting employers you are interested in with speculative applications, detailing what you can offer and asking to meet for a chat about opportunities.

Don’t forget to use online search engines to find out about jobs. Brightgreentalent.com is a neat little search firm which focuses on placing people in green jobs. Right now it is advertising for engineers and software developers.

Email your career question to asklouisa@telegraph.co.uk or visit telegraph.co.uk/careerblog for more answers.

Taken from the Daily Telegraph

Age Mock Tribunal

2010-09-21T02:32:00.000-07:00

The Employers Forum on Age in association with Lewis Silkin invites you to a Mock Tribunal. The only time you'll get to go to a tribunal where everyone's a winner! This is a unique opportunity to hear from a lawyer, tribunal judge and barrister in a simulated hearing focussed on discrimination on grounds of age.

Experience the drama and tension of a tribunal first hand but without paying the penalty if you get things wrong.

Guided by legal experts Lewis Silkin, you will learn - the proceedings, the evidence required, the possible objective justifications and potential questions, who might be called and what will they be asked. And have a chance to cast your verdict.

Whether you're an in-house lawyer, HR specialist or line manager you are going to want to be at this event.

Employers Forum on Age

Wise Owls are moving

2010-09-20T04:33:00.000-07:00

Due to our continued success. Wise Owls have now outgrown our offices in Bethnal Green. We have found some new offices that will fit us all in and are looking forward to establishing ourselves there.

The address is: 95 White Lion Street. Angel, Islington N1 9PF‎. Our new phone numbers are not yet known but we will post the details as soon as they are known.

Wise Owls are continuing with all our programmes in this period:

Life Long Learning
TraintoGain
Experience Works
Equality Recruitment
P.E.O.P.L.E
One-to-One support

Our emails remin the same.

Thankyou

The Wise Owls team.

When retirement takes you by surprise

2010-09-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

What happens if you have planned nicely for your retirement date, but then your retirement date picks you?
Many Americans fantasise about retirement. They responsibly stash cash to fund the happy pursuits of their golden years, only to find retirement forced upon them, amid the chilling spectre of financial insecurity.

Gone are the dreams of moving to a nice house in Florida, close to the golf course and a good steak restaurant - not to mention dangling the carrot of a seaside holiday before the grandkids.

Historic redundancies and business closures - coupled with the stark reality that paltry returns have significantly diminished the value of invested nest eggs - have dulled retirement's sheen of possibility for vast numbers of Americans.

For some, it is downright terrifying - especially when they have not chosen it.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of unemployed people over the age of 55 is currently hovering around 7.3% - more than twice what it was in December 2007.

That figure is the highest the 55+ age group has seen since 1948, when the BLS began collecting its data.

'New unemployables'

Although younger workers are more likely to lose their jobs in this recession, once an older worker has lost his or her job, they are significantly less likely to find another one.

"Older workers have much greater difficulty reconnecting with the labour market," says Carl Van Horn, who heads the John J Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University.

"For them losing a job is catastrophic."

Many of these people will never work again. Mr Van Horn calls them the "new unemployables".

Catherine Collinson, President of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, says an "alarming number of Americans" have not formally planned for retirement.

Most, she says, quickly discover they simply have not saved enough to fund their retirement.

American retirees are eligible for a Social Security benefit for the government.

But most workers are not eligible to receive the full benefit until the are 66. That is not much help if you lose your job at 58.

Transitional struggles

Dwight Moore, president of Lifeshift, a counselling company, says that after years of defining themselves in relation to their work new retirees often struggle with questions of identity.

Imagine you are at a party and somebody asks what you do. What happens when you do not want to answer?

"It's not sufficient from a self-worth perspective to say I am retired or I got laid off," Mr Moore says. "Some people feel embarrassed. For others it's worse: shame, despair, depression."

“Start Quote

In retirement, you lose all of the people that you used to hang out with at work. That can be pretty difficult, especially for men. Women are more adept at having social networks”

Dwight MoorePresident, Lifeshift

Mr Van Horn's research suggest that for most people who are laid off, the news comes quickly, leaving little time to mentally prepare for the psychological minefield ahead.

New retirees often face the daunting task of filling the rest of their days, an especially pronounced fear for people accustomed to a life of blackberries, meetings and schedulers.

Mr Moore says many trades people end up in the informal economy, falling back on their skills to do odd jobs or favours for friend and neighbours.

They often do not do this for cash or tax reasons, but to have a sense of purpose and a connection to their community.

Early retirees have created a cottage industry of sorts, which also doubles as a way of combating loneliness.

"In retirement, you lose all of the people that you used to hang out with at work. That can be pretty difficult, especially for men. Women are more adept at having social networks. Men get isolated," Mr Moore says.

It can also be a strain on marriages. Many couples have a difficulty adjusting to having a spouse that is always around. They are not sure how to cope with so much time together.

"They married for better or for worse, but not for lunch," Mr Moore quips.

Historic debt

The financial burden of early retirement is unquestionable, but in America, historic levels of consumer debt have made it almost unbearable.

David Jones, President of the Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies, says financial counsellors are increasingly seeing people retiring with $60-$70,000 (£39-£45,000) in non-mortgage related debt.

"There's going to be drastic changes for a lot of these people. They're not going to have premium cable TV and cell phones. They'll stick with a used car and keep it for ten years," he says. Many opt for bankruptcy.

"The thought of these people having a comfortable retirement, it's not going to happen."

It seems that message is sinking in.

In a 2010 survey by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, only 7% of full-time workers said they were very confident that they will retire with a lifestyle they consider comfortable.

In 2005, that number was 25%.

'Nobody needs me'

Perhaps the deepest scars for the early-retired are emotional ones.

“Start Quote

One of the saddest things in the world is when you finally know the answers to some of the questions you've been asking your whole life, and suddenly nobody is asking you those questions anymore.”

Jean CoyleUnemployed Presbyterian Chaplain

Many parents are stricken with shame about becoming financially dependent on their children.

In Mr Van Horn's research, being economically reliant on your children is second only to the death of a spouse in terms of grief amongst older people.

For Jean Coyle, an unemployed 65-year-old from Virginia with three degrees in sociology (including a PhD), the worst part of being laid of late in life is the "psychological blow of feeling like nobody needs you".

Ms Coyle switched careers in her fifties, becoming an ordained Presbyterian minister. She was laid off three years ago after her church suffered financial hardship.

"You feel discarded," she says. "I feel totally invisible. I don't foresee any immediate or even long-term answers because I'm only getting older."

She described the pain of opening up her e-mail day after day, only to receive snippy rejection emails, telling her she did not match an employer's needs.

Ironically, when Ms Coyle was a university professor she taught her students about the challenges of an ageing society.

She used to tell her students that "one of the saddest things in the world is when you finally know the answers to some of the questions you've been asking your whole life, and suddenly nobody is asking you those questions anymore".

"I'm living that now," she says.

Article originally from the BBC

Big increase in number of over 65s in work

2010-09-15T02:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday’s official employment figures showed a significant increase in the number of people aged over 65 who are in work, something that we at PRIME have been monitoring for some time.

Up until this month, ONS had been reporting employment rates for older people based on State Pension Age, ie women over 60, and men over 65. However, now that we are facing changes to the age at which people can start to draw their Pension, ONS are using the new measure of 65+ for both sexes.

As the chart shows (click to enlarge), economic activity rates for ‘pensioners’ have been rising steadily over the period of the recession whilst they’ve been pretty flat for younger age groups.

Whilst on the face of it this may seem to be good news, we still face some major challenges.

We currently have almost 3 million people aged between 50 and current Pension Age who are out of work^†, costing the UK economy over £72 billion a year.

Since August 2008, the number of unemployed over 50s has risen by 51%, compared with 36% for the under 50s^†.

A disproportionate number of over 50s are becoming long-term unemployed, and the prospects of re-employment are not encouraging for the huge number of public sector workers who are projected to lose their jobs over the next few years.

A combination of demographic change and changes to State Pension Age will bring an estimated 3.6 million extra older people into the workforce over the next 20 years, but unless steps are taken to address the higher levels of worklessness experienced by the 50+ age group, only half of these workers will have jobs. For the others, we may be simply shifting them from drawing their State Pensions to claiming an ou-of-work benefit.

At this time when Government is putting together the specifications for the new single Work Programme to tackle unemployment, we cannot afford to miss the opportunity to build in tailored, effective measures to help a significant number of the 3 million workless over-50s back to work.

With almost one-in-five of the over 50s who are in work being self-employed^††, these measures must include help to make the transition from employment or unemployment to self-employment.

^†source: ONS Labour Market Statistical Bulletin July 2010

^††source: ONS Annual Population Survey, September 2009

Peter Bennie

Director of Development

PRIME

This article was taken from Prime

Fairness for Older Workers (U.S)

2010-09-14T02:52:00.000-07:00

Fifteen months ago, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority mowed past statutory language, Congressional intent and decades of precedent to make it much harder for older workers to prove age discrimination.

Under the 5-to-4 ruling, it is no longer sufficient for employees claiming illegal age bias to show that age was a motivating factor in their demotion or layoff. They must show that age was the decisive factor, an unfairly tough standard of proof and a major watering down of older workers’ civil rights.

Fortunately, the court’s mangling of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 need not stand. Legislation introduced last fall by Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa and Representative George Miller of California, both Democrats, would reverse the ruling, once again making the standard for proving age discrimination equivalent to the standard for proving discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion and national origin.

Once a worker showed age discrimination was a factor in his or her treatment, an employer could still win by showing it would have made the same employment decision, regardless of the worker’s age.

So far, the measure has attracted no Republican co-sponsors. But standing in the way of fair treatment of older workers is bad policy and bad politics, especially at a moment of soaring unemployment and rising age discrimination claims. This is one of the few areas where progress should be possible even in the charged lead-up to the midterm elections.

In fact, talks are under way among business and civil rights groups, advocates for older people, including AARP, and lawmakers of both parties that could potentially result in a deal on good remedial legislation.

Meantime, the problem is spreading. Some lower federal courts have read the Supreme Court’s ruling to raise the bar for employment claims under other statutes, including the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Prompt Congressional action is needed to contain the damage.

This article was produced by the New York Times

Women to retire with less money in pension timebomb

2010-09-13T04:28:00.000-07:00

PENSIONS are a mystery to large numbers of workers, with women particularly confused by retirement planning, new research reveals.

Even among those women who have a pension plan, large numbers admit they have no idea how much they are contributing.

And half of the women surveyed have no idea how the tax reliefs on pension investment works, the research carried out for Friends First shows.

The findings prompted financial experts to conclude that women were now facing a pension timebomb.

One in four of all those surveyed had no idea what type, if any, pension they have. But this rises to one in three for women.

The survey reveals women are less prepared for their retirement than their male colleagues

Four out of 10 women admit they do not have a pension plan compared with three out of 10 men. Men, on the other hand, contribute more to their pensions and have better quality retirement funds. They also have a better understanding of how pensions work.

Investing in a pension is regarded as highly tax efficient. For someone on the 41pc income tax rate they can end up with €100 in pension investment for just €50 because of the way the tax reliefs work.

But four out of 10 people do not understand how the tax benefits for investing in a pension work. When it comes to women, half of them do not understand the tax reliefs for investing in a pension.

"This research indicates that there is a real inequality between the sexes when it comes to pension provision," Friends First's head of pensions Simon Hoffman said.

"Our survey reveals that women are less well-informed and therefore at a greater risk of not providing adequately for their retirement. This inequality is a cause for concern and points to a need for greater education among female workers."

Complexity

Mr Hoffman said it was clear that perceived complexity remained a significant barrier to increasing private pension provision.

The recently published National Pensions Framework Strategy made a number of proposals to encourage more people to take out private pensions and to encourage people to put more into their retirement fund.

However, Mr Hoffman said there had been too many changes in the past few years, many of them making the situation worse.

"By tinkering around the edges with our pension system over the last number of decades we have created a system which alienates those who need pensions most," he added.

- Charlie Weston

Irish Independent

Government publishes details of Equality Act coming into force on 1 October 2010

2010-09-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

Alcoholics, smokers, voyeurs and exhibitionists will not be protected by disability provisions in the Equality Act, elements of which come into force on 1 October 2010.

The Government published the Equality Act 2010 (Disability) Regulations 2010 on 31 August, which include provisions that support the definition of disability in the Equality Act 2010.

Under the Equality Act 2010, which replaces all existing discrimination laws including the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, employers and service providers are not allowed to discriminate on the grounds of individuals' physical or mental disabilities.

However, there are certain conditions that have been specifically excluded from constituting a disability, such as: addictions to alcohol, nicotine, or any other substance; some mental health conditions such as a compulsion towards exhibitionism or voyeurism; and hay fever, unless it aggravates the effect of another condition.

Addictions that were originally the result of the administration of medically prescribed drugs or other medical treatment are included under the act. More detail is provided here.

Those that have been certified blind, sight-impaired or partially sighted by a consultant ophthalmologist will be deemed to have a disability under the regulations.

Stephen Simpson, senior employment law editor at XpertHR, says the new legislation carried across some uncontroversial exclusions to the new Equality Act.

"What's more interesting is what has been left out of the Regulations," he told Personnel Today. "An individual no longer has to show that, where an impairment adversely affects his or her ability to carry out a normal day-to-day activity, that activity involves one of a specified list of capacities, such as mobility, speech, or the ability to understand.

"It will be left to tribunals to make a common-sense decision as to whether or not a particular impairment has a substantial effect on day-to-day activities. This should make it easier for individuals to show that they are disabled under the Equality Act 2010."
Daniel Barnett, employment law barrister at Temple Garden Chambers, said: "This law makes it clear that employers are not required to make special adjustments to welcome voyeurs or exhibitionists into the workplace. Nor are employers required to make allowances for any mental disability if an employers wants to dismiss someone who turns out to be a voyeur or flasher."
In addition, the Government is planning to replace the guidance on matters to be taken into account in determining whether or not an employee is disabled under the DDA with updated guidance to take account of the Equality Act 2010. It is consulting on draft guidance until 31 October 2010.

The Equality Act 2010 (Sex Equality Rule) (Exceptions) Regulations 2010 and Equality Act (Age Exceptions for Pension Schemes) Order 2010, which come into force on 1 October 2010, have also been published. These regulations set out exceptions to the rules on non-discrimination in relation to sex and age for occupational health schemes.

Employer seeking ‘younger’ replacement guilty of age discrimination

2010-09-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

In a recent decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), an employer who had included the word ‘younger’ in a person specification drafted for the purpose of replacing an employee, was found to have committed an act of age discrimination and had unfairly dismissed that employee.

The claimant in this case, Mr Beck, was employed as head of marketing by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. The Bank was not happy with his performance and dismissed him for redundancy, at the age of 42. An employment agency was instructed to recruit a replacement, and the Bank’s person specification for this purpose stated that it was “seeking younger, entrepreneurial profile”.

Mr Beck’s claim for unfair dismissal was upheld. The tribunal was satisfied that the Bank did not have a potentially fair reason for his dismissal. The tribunal also upheld Mr Beck’s claim for age discrimination.

The Bank’s appeal to the EAT has now been dismissed. The tribunal had noted that the word “younger” had been included in several drafts of the person specification, against the express advice of the Bank’s head of HR. The EAT agreed that the use of this word constituted the “clearest possible evidence of potential age discrimination”. The Bank attempted to argue that “younger” did not refer to age but referred to a less “senior” individual who would be less expensive, but the EAT was not convinced by this argument.

Tina Maxey, an employment solicitor at Steeles Law commented: “This case provides a good illustration of the approach taken by employment tribunals to the use of overtly ‘ageist’ language in recruitment materials.

"The Bank attempted to disprove the allegation of age discrimination by pointing out that one of the preferred candidates was 50 years old, and the person eventually appointed was 38 years old – just four years younger than the claimant (who had himself been appointed at the age of 41). Both the tribunal and the EAT gave this argument short shrift in light of the wording used in the person specification.”

She added: “The case also demonstrates that employers should take the advice of their own HR experts!”

British workers plan to defer retirement

2010-08-27T05:39:00.000-07:00

One in ten workers have no plans to retire, while 42% of non-retired workers have no idea at what age they will be able to give up work, according to research from Baring Asset Management.

In comparison, when the firm conducted a similar survey in 2008, before the downturn, the majority of respondents were confident that they would retire and just one per cent did not know what age they would stop working at.

Marino Valensise, chief investment officer at Barings, said: "Our research shows that, for a large number of people, the ability to retire is now uncertain. A combination of increased longevity, a rise in the cost of living, and people not saving enough means that more people are being forced to work beyond the age of 65. They simply can't afford to stop working."

The study also found that 100,000 people who have yet to retire don't plan to stop working until they are at least 76 years old, while 2.3 million Brits will work until they are 65 or older.

Recent research by HSBC found that almost a third of over-50s and 41% of 60 to 70-year-olds are aiming to change career or shift to a new role.

The United Nations Principles of Older Persons

2010-08-25T07:14:00.000-07:00

The United Nations Principles of Older Persons

The United Nations Principles of Older Persons was adopted by the UN General Assembly (resolution 46/91) on 16 December 1991. Governments were encouraged to incorporate them into their national programmes whenever possible. Some highlights of the Principles are:

Independence

Older persons should:

* have access to adequate food, water, shelter, clothing and health care through the provision of income, family and community support and self-help;

* have the opportunity to work or to have access to other income-generating opportunities;

* be able to participate in determining when and at what pace withdrawal from the labour force takes place;

* have access to appropriate educational and training programmes;

* be able to live in environments that are safe and adaptable to personal preferences and changing capacities;

* be able to reside at home for as long as possible.

Participation

Older persons should:

* remain integrated in society, participate actively in the formulation and implementation of policies that directly affect their well-being, and share their knowledge and skills with younger generations;

* be able to seek and develop opportunities for service to the community and to serve as

volunteers in positions appropriate to their interests and capabilities;

* be able to form movements or associations of older persons.

Care

Older persons should:

* benefit from daily and community care and protection in accordance with each society's

system of cultural values;

* have access to health care to help them to maintain or regain the optimum level of physical, mental and emotional well-being and to prevent or delay the onset of illness;

* have access to social and legal services to enhance their autonomy, protection and care;

* be able to utilize appropriate levels of institutional care providing protection, rehabilitation and social and mental stimulation in a humane and secure environment;

* be able to enjoy human rights and fundamental freedoms when residing in any shelter, care or treatment facility, including full respect for their dignity, beliefs, needs and privacy and for the right to make decisions about their health care and the quality of their lives.

Self-fulfilment

Older persons should:

* be able to pursue opportunities for the full development of their potential;

* have access to the educational, cultural, spiritual and recreational resources of society.

Dignity

Older persons should:

* be able to live in dignity and security and be free of exploitation and physical or mental abuse;

* be treated fairly regardless of age, gender, racial or ethnic background, disability or other status, and be valued independently of their economic contribution.

Wales commissioner calls for older people's rights

2010-08-24T05:45:00.000-07:00

Older people deserve a specific set of rights to ensure they are treated with dignity and respect, according to the older people's commissioner for Wales.

Ruth Marks said she heard of many instances where people were discriminated against because of age.

Examples included travel insurance premiums rising for those over 70.

An ICM poll for the commissioner suggested almost eight out of 10 people strongly support the introduction of rights for older people.
Continue reading the main story
Related stories

* Coalition stands by Equality Act
* Widow's call for NHS age equality

Ms Marks said she wanted the government to ensure that older people are better protected from age discrimination, with a formal set of rights being brought in to help individuals and organisations identify how it can be identified and tackled.

She said that the survey of 1,500 people of all ages, commissioned by the commissioner, shows there was "overwhelming support" for the idea.

"Age discrimination often goes unrecognised in our society because it has, in many instances, become normal to discriminate unfairly against older people," she added.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

We're finding that there are specific areas, particularly in relation to financial services and in relation to health and social care where older people seem to be badly done by”

End Quote Ruth Marks Older people's commissioner for Wales

Alun Thomas, head of policy for the Older People's Commissioner, said around 2,000 people had contacted the commissioner's information line with concerns about discrimination.

"We're finding that there are specific areas, particularly in relation to financial services and in relation to health and social care where older people seem to be badly done by," he said.

"One example relates to the fact that insurance premiums suddenly take a certain hike once an individual reaches the age of 70.

"Another example would be where on health screening programmes, people are denied the right to health screening simply because of age and no other factor."

He said some rights were currently not being used effectively while others still had to be implemented.

He said he hoped the age equality aspects of the Equality Act 2010 would be brought in at the earliest opportunity.

The poll for the commissioner found 79% would strongly support the introduction of a set of rights. ICM interviewed a sample of 1,000 adults in Wales aged 65 and over by telephone from 18 - 25 March. A further 500 adults aged 18-64 were interviewed between 14 - 19 April 2010.

For more on this story: BBC News

Public will hold government to account under new equality rules

2010-08-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

Change of approach marks end to box-ticking bureaucracy

People will be able to see exactly what public sector organisations are doing to tackle inequality under new plans to put taxpayers in control of holding public bodies to account, announced today by Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone.

Launching a consultation on the new public sector Equality Duty, the Minister promised to make efforts to reduce inequality more transparent by increasing the amount of information public sector organisations must publish. This will mean they can be held accountable not by civil servants in Whitehall but by the people who actually fund and use their services.

The new approach marks an end to top down targets and box ticking bureaucracy.

Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone said:

“Equality is central to delivering the fair and more efficient public services that support a fairer society. However, in the past equality has too often become a byword for box-ticking and bureaucracy, with public bodies focussing on red tape rather than results.

“The new Equality Duty will change this – instead of the Government imposing top-down targets and bureaucratic processes on organisations, we will require them to publish data on their equality results in their services and their workforce, empowering the public by giving them the information they need to hold organisations to account.

“Citizens will be able to see for themselves how a public body is performing on equality, because what really matters is delivering improved, more equal services, not following complicated and expensive procedures.

“To really make this work we need to know what you think, so please visit the Government Equalities Office website and have your say on the proposals.”

The public sector Equality Duty will replace three separate duties that require government departments, local authorities and other public bodies to take into account gender, race and disability equality both as employers and when making policy decisions and delivering services. The duty simplifies this requirement and also extends it to fully cover age, religion and belief, sexual orientation and gender reassignment.

The consultation is the latest stage in the Government’s equalities programme, which so far has included enacting new rules to help tackle the gender pay gap and provide greater protection for the rights of disabled people, as well as work to improve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

The Spirit Level: how 'ideas wreckers' turned bestseller into political punchbag

2010-08-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

Book with cross-party support arguing that equality is better for all comes under attack from thinktanks

The authors, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, argue that most of the important health and social problems of the rich world are more common in unequal societies. Using data from 23 rich countries and 50 US states, they found problems are anything from three to 10 times as common in more unequal societies. Again and again, the Scandinavian countries and Japan are at one end of the scale as the most equal, while the US, UK and Australia are at the other.

A key explanation is the psychological impact of inequality which, they say, causes stress and anxiety. For example, maths and literacy scores are lower in more unequal countries, affected by the issues of health, anxiety and depression and consequent drug and alcohol use. The way parents react to relative poverty also affects the way they treat their children, affecting education.

Violence rises in more unequal societies too. Following psychological studies that say men have an incentive to achieve as high a status as possible because their sexual competitiveness depends on it, the authors explain that men use violence when their status is threatened, and more so when there is little status to defend. "The association between inequality and violence is strong and consistent. The evolutionary importance of shame and humiliation provides a plausible explanation of why more unequal societies suffer more violence." Suicide is the only social ill that increases in more equal societies, they say.

Crucially, the authors argue that the evidence shows that all levels of society benefit from more equality, not just the poorest. On health, "at almost any level of income, it's better to live in a more equal place". Whether rich or poor, inequality causes stress, which causes biological reactions that put pressure on the body and increase illness.

Arguably the most profound conclusion is that economic growth among rich countries has finished its work because it is no longer increasing life expectancy and the only way to do that is to better share the wealth we have.

In its most simple terms, the book yearns for society to celebrate humankind's ability to co-operate and support one another. Are we fighters – which increases inequality? Or are we lovers? The authors say we don't have to see society, as the philosopher Hobbes saw it, as naturally in conflict – "every man against every man" – owing to rivalry for scarce resources.

Instead, "human beings have a unique potential to be each other's best source of co-operation, learning, love and assistance of every kind".

Pensions 'less than half the minimum standard of living'

2010-08-17T05:28:00.000-07:00

Pension pots have continued to shrink alarmingly in the past month, leaving 65-year-olds with half the amount they need for an adequate standard of living in retirement, analysts said yesterday.

The latest falls in pension incomes will leave the average 65-year-old with just £7,666 a year, a fall of £259 over the month, the employee benefits company Aon Consultancy calculated. For the first time, that is half the £14,400 income that the Joseph Rowntree Foundation recommends for an adequate standard of living for a pensioner.

Aon's analysis showed that the projected annual pension income for a 30-year-old dropped by £518 in the past four weeks, while that of a 60-year-old fell by £358. Projected annual income in retirement for someone aged 30 now stands at £19,344, while for someone aged 60 it has fallen to £10,466.

Aon's projections predict the retirement income of individuals of various ages who contribute 10 per cent of a £25,000 salary to a defined contribution pension. Richard Strachan, one of the firm's senior consultant, said: "Though we have seen some improvement to economic circumstances in the past six months, pension pots are in only marginally better shape than this time last year and due to the volatility in stock market activity, pension pots shrank once again during the last month."

He warned pension savers they faced a retirement in penury if they do not act to boost their retirement income. "Individual pension investors should keep a watchful eye on their pension pots to ensure their retirement plans are on track, and make suitable provision for their future," Mr Strachan added.

Meanwhile, the research company Defaqto warned that many people were approaching retirement with a number of different pension pots that might not be well invested.

"Instead of holding a number of smaller pension pots with different providers, consolidation into one pension plan may be a wise move," said David Abbis, the author of Defaqto's Guide to Self-Invested Personal Pensions. "Planning can then be made towards retirement, with sensible investing and monitoring hopefully resulting in better performance."

Equality recruitment newsletter

2010-08-16T07:32:00.000-07:00

Download the latest newsletter in PDF format highlighting the latest news, what our partners are doing and selected vacancies including the latest events. Equality Recruitment are continuing to expand, working with more partners, priving more vacancies making life easier for employers in relation to recruitment and advertising within the rules of the Equality law. If your organisation wants to become a partner then please contact us at - marketing@equalityrecruitment.co.uk

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50-plus workers trapped in long-term unemployment

2010-08-11T04:58:00.000-07:00

Number of 50-plus workers trapped in long-term unemployment rockets to 10-year high, says Age UK

The number of older workers trapped in long-term unemployment has hit a ten-year high after soaring by over 50 per cent in the last year alone, and planned changes to working age benefits could drive this figure even higher, warns Age UK.

Ahead of today’s publication of the latest employment figures, Age UK found that two in five 50-plus unemployed workers – a total of 170,000 people – have been out of work for over a year. The figure went up by half (52%) over the last year and almost a fifth (18.6%) over the last quarter – the highest percentage increase among all age groups – reaching the highest level since June 1997 when long-term unemployment among 50-plus workers was still high in the wake of the early-90s recession (Fig 1). The proportion of 50-plus in long-term unemployment has also risen sharply from 36.2 to 43.7 per cent over the last quarter, setting at its highest level since 2000 (Fig 2).

While male workers are still the worst affected – making up over three quarter of the 50-plus out of work for more than a year – women aged 50 and over have seen the number of long-term unemployed soar by a third over the last quarter, the highest percentage increase among all age groups.

With the number of older workers looking for a job set to rise by over three quarters of a million as a result of moving people off Incapacity Benefits, Age UK warns that the situation is bound to get worse unless older workers are offered tailored back-to-work support.2

Michelle Mitchell, Age UK Charity Director, said:

“This is the highest level of long-term unemployment among over 50s that we have seen in a decade and brings back the spectre of the last two recessions which left a devastating legacy of unemployment among people in later life.

“If hundreds of thousands of 50-plus workers remain stuck in long-term unemployment, the Government’s plans to ‘reinvigorate’ retirement and extend working lives will remain a hollow sound bite for many people.

“Before pushing people back into the recruitment arena or forcing them to work for longer, the Government must lay the foundations of a better job market for older people, with fairness and flexibility as cornerstones.”

For more from Age UK

Over 50's outrage at further N.H.S. privatisation

2010-08-02T04:19:00.000-07:00

Elite N.H.S. foundation trusts are gearing up to lure private patients from home and abroad as health budgets are squeezed – a decision made possible after health secretary Andrew Lansley said he would abolish the cap limiting the proportion of total income hospitals can earn from the paying sick, research by the Guardian has shown.

With a £20bn black hole opening up in NHS budgets, a group of top performing trusts are seeking to profit from paying patients and use the money to fund public healthcare in Britain. The Guardian contacted the top 10 NHS trusts in terms of private income after the health secretary proposed new freedoms and discovered proposals to build new wings and wards to cater for private patients, set up hospitals abroad and entice medical tourists with airport-to-hospital bed services.

Critics say that because Lansley has abolished targets to reduce waiting times and is encouraging private care, patients will be back to a system where those with cash can jump ahead of those in need. The chief executive of one of the largest NHS hospitals, speaking anonymously, said chasing new markets might also see management spread "too thinly and lose clinical oversight". "Look at Great Ormond Street. They expanded up the road to Haringey Council and the Baby P tragedy happened on their watch," said the chief executive. The hospital in London provided paediatric staff to hospitals where Baby Peter was taken with fatal injuries that are now known to have been deliberately inflicted.

Labour says the policies give "a green light to let market forces run riot through the NHS". Andrew Burnham, the shadow health secretary, said there was "a dangerous combination of lifting the cap on treating private patients and scrapping national waiting time standards," adding: "With no limit on the amount hospitals can earn from seeing private patients, NHS patients can be made to wait. And as waits grow, people will be forced to consider paying for their care. It's the same old Tory NHS choice – wait longer or pay to go private."

But despite concerns that the NHS will wither as private medicine booms, Caroline Shaw, of Manchester's Christie hospital, Europe's largest cancer centre, said it would treble its private income from £10m to £30m within a decade after making a deal last month with the biggest private hospital group in the world, HCA. The deal will see the US-based HCA – which owns six private hospitals in London – pay £14m for a new private cancer centre at Christie. Shaw said staff voiced doubts until they realised half the income went back into the NHS. "We are full of top academics and researchers, so we had to explain we are not losing our values or morals. But we are getting new facilities and it's a 50:50 split of income. I am only half joking when I say we are the new Robin Hoods, taking from the rich to pay for the poor."

Others have gone shopping across the world for rich patients. The Royal Brompton and Harefield, the UK's largest cardio-respiratory centre, devotes an entire section on its website to marketing its "personalised, world-class service" offering patients a city guide and suggesting trips to the "high-end shopping facilities" of nearby Sloane Street and Harrods.

It has emerged that removing the limit on private patients, put in place by Labour, is central to Lansley's reforms. Last week the department of health put out a consultation paper calling for the lifting of the "arbitrary, ill-thought-through cap on [hospitals'] private income ... [to let] the NHS to take proper advantage, for the benefit of this country, of the power of its brand abroad".

Many have taken the health secretary at his word and are targeting the rich in Russia and the Middle East. Moorfields, the eye hospital, opened for business in Dubai and in three years has seen patient numbers jump five-fold to 9,700, and private income there tops £13m. It is now planning another hospital in oil-rich Abu Dhabi.

John Pelly, Moorfields's chief executive, said: "Without profits [from our commercial business] our ability to invest in our clinical services would be seriously constrained ... Particularly at a time when the financial constraints facing the NHS are going to be as severe as they are in the next three or four years, it's going to be really important to the NHS that we can take advantage of the abolishing of the cap."

Labour's cap had meant most hospitals were unable to generate more than 2% from private income. The exception is the Royal Marsden, a leading cancer hospital which, thanks to history, has a cap of 31% – and a private income of more than £40m a year. The Marsden, Lansley says, is the "model" in his new-look NHS.

The policy shift has led to smaller trusts thinking big. Papworth Hospital, home to the first successful heart transplant in the UK, will soon be submerged into the new 135-acre Cambridge Biomedical Campus. Some of its operations are so complex – with costs running into £25,000 for 10 hours of surgery – that the NHS can only afford to pay for 80 a year. "I think Andrew Lansley has really thrown down the gauntlet to us. In the next five years we aim to triple private income from 5% today to 15%. There are plans for a completely new private hospital on the campus," said Stephen Bridges, the hospital's chief executive, who has been advised by private healthcare company Spire.

However, academics caution that the rush to the market could lead not to NHS trusts profiting, but to them being undercut by ruthless foreign competitors or losing patients abroad. "What's to stop US healthcare companies coming over here to poach patients. Or GPs sending patients to India for cheap operations? Or English hospitals raiding Scotland for sick people?" said Alan Maynard, professor of health economics at the University of York. "It could be a real mess."

Some are concerned that despite the push the NHS has "missed the boat" when it comes to competing in global private healthcare. Jane Collins, chief executive of Great Ormond Street, which raises £23m from private patients and has just signed a contract in Kuwait to bring back seriously ill children back to Britain, warned: "In terms of UK plc, we are way behind the US, the Germans, Indian companies and Malaysian hospitals."

More on the Web: Guardian

Equality Authority victim of targeted 'misinformation'

2010-07-13T10:52:00.000-07:00

THE EQUALITY Authority was victim last year to a deliberate “campaign of misinformation” aimed at undermining its work, authority chairwoman Angela Kerins has said.

In her forward to the authority’s 2009 annual report, published yesterday, Ms Kerins said the campaign was initiated after a cut in the authority’s budget and continued while it was trying to reorganise to ensure there was no impact on its service to the public.

“This campaign purported to show that the authority was either no longer in operation or that it was no longer operating effectively.”

The authority was “extremely concerned” this may have caused people who needed its help to believe it was no longer in a position to do so, she said.

“The authority worked with stakeholders to try to minimise the numbers of vulnerable people who may, because of this information, be affected by this.”

When asked yesterday who had orchestrated the campaign against the authority, Ms Kerins said she didn’t want to name individuals.

Despite a 43 per cent cut to the authority’s budget in 2009, targets set before the cuts were announced were met and in some cases exceeded, she said.

“Given the 2009 budget cuts, this work-rate is testament to the dedication and professionalism of the Equality Authority team.”

Almost half of all queries to the authority last year related to concerns over maternity leave. More than 8,000 people last year contacted it for help in employment problems and equal access to services and facilities. More than 3,600 related to the Maternity Protection Acts.

Separate to maternity worries, about 1,700 queries related to the Employment Equality Acts and 1,650 came under the Equal Status Acts. Almost 1,100 were received in relation to the Parental Leave Acts and just over 60 related to the Adoptive Leave Acts.

While the majority of people contacting the authority were seeking information, more than 1,000 said they had suffered or were concerned about discrimination.

In relation to employment, 221 queries related to age discrimination, 190 related to disability discrimination and 188 to discrimination because of gender.

Of those whose queries related to discrimination in the provision of goods and services, 210 said the discrimination related to a disability, 161 cited age grounds and 118 said the discrimination related to race.

The authority handled 878 legal cases last year. Almost one-third of all employment cases taken were against Government departments or State agencies.

Taken from the Irish Times

US: Age bias complaints surge in bad economy

2010-06-30T03:51:00.000-07:00

After getting laid off from her job at a private school, Joyce Kalivas-Griffin was heartened to see virtually the same job open up at another school in her area.

Kalivas-Griffin, 57, applied for the job, but heard nothing. Then the job was posted again, and she applied again, this time submitting a resume that she had edited to mask her age.

The second time, she said she was called in for an interview, but eventually lost out to a younger candidate.

Kalivas-Griffin doesn’t think that the other candidate was any less qualified, but she does think that her own age played a role in not getting the job.

“I have to kind of be almost pragmatic about it,” she said. “Would I hire somebody that was 57, thinking, ‘Will she be around? Will I be able to have a history with her (or) will she retire in two years or four years or six years?’”

The recent recession has amplified concerns that older workers are facing a tougher time getting — or keeping — jobs because of stereotypes about everything from the salaries they may demand to their ability to learn new skills.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission saw a 33 percent increase in the number of age discrimination complaints that were filed during its past two fiscal years combined, as compared to the prior two fiscal years. That translates into 47,360 complaints filed between October 2007, two months before the nation went into recession, and September of 2009.

Over the same two-year period, total discrimination complaints to the EEOC rose 19 percent, to 188,679. Discrimination complaints in general tend to rise during economic downturns, when people are more likely to lose a job and have more trouble finding new work.

Older workers seen as more expensive

Companies are desperate to cut costs in a weak economy. Experts say older workers can become more vulnerable because more experienced workers tend to command higher salaries. A company looking at the bottom line may conclude that the best thing to do is cut the most expensive employees.

“What they end up doing is lay off the older folks,” said Mike Baldonado, district director of the EEOC in the San Francisco office, which has seen a surge in complaints since the recession began.

Some older workers, such as Kalivas-Griffin, say they are finding their job search much more arduous than in the past.

The unemployment rate for workers 55 and older is lower than for any other age group, at 7.1 percent in May as compared to 9.7 percent for the population as a whole. But those older workers who lose their jobs are taking much longer to find a new one.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said workers ages 55 to 64 were taking an average of 44.5 weeks to find a new job in May, compared with 35.1 weeks for the population as a whole. The latest jobless numbers for June are due out Friday.

Assumptions are widespread

Peter Cappelli, a professor of management at The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who has researched this topic extensively, said that while most employers know it’s unacceptable to make a broad judgments about women or minorities — such as saying that they don’t respond well to change or aren’t fast learners — people will routinely make such comments about older workers.

“What is different about age discrimination is that the assumptions are so much more widespread and the apparent willingness to act on them is much more widespread,” Cappelli said.

Kalivas-Griffin, who lives in Tacoma, Wash., had been the facilities and transportation secretary at a private school for 12 years when she was laid off in November of 2008. She thought her years at the private school, combined with extensive prior experience doing bookkeeping and taxes, would make her an ideal job candidate.

Instead, she now thinks that her long resume could have been a turnoff to employers, who may have worried that she’d be overqualified or not stick around long enough.

Besides editing her resume, Kalivas-Griffin has lost 25 pounds and cut and dyed her hair. Still, she’s had no luck landing a job.

She’d prefer a full-time job because it would give her and her husband, a contract worker, access to health insurance and other benefits. But increasingly, she said she is moving toward starting her own bookkeeping and tax business, while selling custom-made jewelry on the side.

Julian Knight: Our ageing population must be less ageist

2010-06-28T02:50:00.000-07:00

We've known for several years that we will have to wait longer for our state pension, but the goalposts were moved once again last week with the confirmation that the Government wants first men and later women to work till 66 from 2016.

But what work are people going to do while they wait for the least generous state pension in the developed world? Finding a job beyond 50 or even younger in some professions (such as media) is nearly impossible as employers routinely discount older candidates because they are supposedly more likely to be off ill and are difficult to train. This is nonsense; in my experience, younger workers' sick records are often far worse, and to suggest older workers can't be trained is pure prejudice.

Yet the UK workplace is steeped in ageism: it can be found in job adverts specifying "energetic", "fresh" or just plain discriminatory "young" applicants only. When it comes time to get rid of staff, often older members are the first out of the door. Some retailers recruit older people and make a lot of PR noise out of it, but do you fancy spending the back end of your career as an Asda greeter?

For this to work, we need a fundamental shift in how society views age. To a certain extent this will happen naturally. We are an ageing population so you'd hope that we would wake up to the fact that by being ageist at work we're hurting ourselves. But I don't have huge faith in people to learn this lesson fast. We do have age discrimination laws but they are limited to the under-65s, and I feel they don't genuinely stigmatise in the same way as sex and race laws do. It's still the case that although the pension age is 65, the average age a man stops working in the UK is about 62.

If the Tories expect us to wait even longer for our pension – beyond 70 – then they should get interventionist (which they won't) over the subject of age discrimination and more flexible over retirement saving (which I expect they will). They have to close the gap between when people really finish work and the state pension age or, at worst, keep it to about three years. The alternative is allowing hundreds of thousands more men and women to eke out the best part of a decade on benefits before eventually getting their hands on a state pension.

Read my lips: more taxes

It's an old joke, but how can you tell a politician is lying? Answer: their lips move. Throughout the election we had Labour with its fictitious public spending efficiency measures and now feigned horror at a VAT rise it certainly was planning itself. Meanwhile, the Lib Dems and Tories pretend that now they've seen the books then the rise was inevitable, although they too planned it all along.

If you're tempted to think you got away lightly, think again. Who is to say that the downgraded economic forecasts aren't still overly optimistic? Only a percentage point out and more taxes will have to go up.

Lloyds' sleight of hand

If I didn't know better, I'd think that we were seeing a gradual unwinding of the punitive unauthorised bank charges regime when Lloyds announced last week that from December (why the wait?) it will cut its fees for bouncing cheques and direct debits. Most of the big players have reduced their charges with some notable exceptions (Clydesdale bank still levies a rip-off 30 per cent interest on its unauthorised borrowings and a £35 "unpaid item" fee), but these fees are still a massive money-spinner for the banks. All that is happening is that the banks are doing the bare minimum to assuage some of their critics over charges. In Lloyds' case it has even decided to fund its generosity by reducing the interest rate it pays some of its current account holders and an introducing a £5 usage fee on authorised overdrafts – this from a bank you and I practically own. Half-hearted and sleight of hand is the only conclusion.

Explainer: Raising the pension age

2010-06-25T04:06:00.000-07:00

What changes is the Government making?

The coalition plans to raise the pension age in 2016 to 66 for men and from 2020 for women. There is also talk of increasing the pension age to 70 or more over the next few decades, replacing the previous government's plans to increase the state pension age to 68 by 2046. The coalition also intends to abolish the existing default retirement age of 65, which means employers won't be able to dismiss workers just because they reach a certain age. Finally, the Government has confirmed plans to auto-enrol people into workplace pensions from 2012.

What have they not said today?

The subtext of today's announcements – and similar pension announcements from the previous government – is that if you don't start saving for your retirement now, you'll end up practically penniless with few choices when you finish working. The message from Iain Duncan Smith yesterday was: "Everyone needs to take responsibility for achieving the income in retirement they aspire to."

I'm in my twenties. Do I really need to think about this now?

It is a long way off but, presuming we all live that long, the fact that you may have to work longer before you can draw a state pension is not a cheery thought. However, if you are in your twenties you're in the best position to avoid having to work until you're 70. Saving now for your retirement will allow you to build up a decent nest-egg to give yourself the choice of retiring earlier – much earlier – if you wish.

Doesn't it discriminate against manual workers who might be exhausted by 60?

The National Pensioners Convention (NPC) warns that raising the retirement age will see some people being forced to work until they drop. "The wealthier you are, the longer you live, so raising the retirement age therefore is a direct attack on the very poorest in our society," says Dot Gibson, general secretary of the NPC. According to the latest NHS figures, men in Blackpool live to 73.2 years on average, which would give them just over three years to enjoy their retirement. Men in Kensington and Chelsea, by contrast, have a life expectancy of 84.7.

Will it lead to fewer jobs for graduates, as not as many older people will be retiring?

That's the concern of some. Compared to today, the number of people over 65 will be half as many again in 2030, and will have doubled by 2060, according to the Department for Work and Pensions. If more are being forced to work, there could be fewer jobs for graduates. But a more likely scenario is that today's young people will build up decent pension pots through the auto-enrolment scheme, which will force employers to set up retirement schemes. If so, their savings should be decent enough for them to be able to retire earlier, meaning they won't need to rely on the paltry state pension payouts which look likely to be on offer at the time. Then if more people retire early, more jobs will become available for graduates.

I'm 64 and have already made plans for retirement. What happens if it goes up to 70?

It won't happen in your working lifetime. In fact you'll be retired by the time the age climbs to 66. The increase will only hit people who are due to retire at 65 from 2016 onwards.

Do I actually have to do anything or is this all automatic?

With regards to the state pension, which is what this is all about, you need to do nothing. It will all happen automatically and you'll be told if your retirement age is changing. However, the important message for anyone in their twenties, thirties or forties is to start saving now for your retirement, if you haven't already. If you don't, you'll be left with very little choice when you reach your late sixties.

I have a pension but have no idea what I've accumulated so far. How do I find out?

You need to contact your pension providers. That could be your current employer's scheme, or that of previous firms you've worked for. If you have a private pension you'll need to contact the bank, life assurance company or building society that administers it. If you've lost track of your pension, contact the Pension Tracing Service.

Simon Read, Personal Finance Editor