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This report presents the findings of a qualitative research study, commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in October 2006, to examine how to best encourage the 60-64 age group to take up or remain in work. In addition, the research investigated the opportunities presented by State Pension equalisation to create incentives and remove barriers to work for this group. The background to the project is the Extending Working Life policy, which seeks to improve opportunities and outcomes for people and maximise the contribution of older people to the economy by increasing employment rates among those over 50 years of age. The objectives of the study were to better understand: the barriers to working existing for 60-64 year olds, and how personal, structural and cultural factors interact to depress their labour market participation; incentives that would particularly help working among this age group; ways in which the labour market opportunities of State Pension age (SPA) equalisation can be maximised; and how barriers to working might be removed.

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Population ageing will increase pressure on governments to balance expenditure on the older population with tax revenues. However, this demographic change can offer a range of opportunities to support longer and more fulfilling working lives for those older people who want or need to continue to work past retirement age. This qualitative study is the second part of Scottish Government research into employment of older people. It interrogated the attitudes, behaviours and preferences of a mixed group of older people (aged 50+) in central Scotland regarding later-life working and retirement. It also collected rich in-depth data from a diverse range of employers to examine their attitudes, policies and practices surrounding an older workforce.

Both samples identified a number of benefits and opportunities associated with later life working, including health benefits for individuals and retention of vital skills and experience for employers. However, significant challenges and concerns were also raised. These centred on inequality of opportunities between different groups of older people. It was clear that choices over later working life were highly constrained for those on lower incomes, those in low-skilled jobs and those with significant caring responsibilities. These circumstances most often interact to disadvantage older women in particular. There was also a potential mismatch between the attitudes and expectations of older people and those of employers. Findings suggest that there is a current window of opportunity to raise awareness of later-life working options among older people and employers to help promote opportunities, policies and practices around extended working life.

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Despite impending legislation to eliminate age discrimination in employment, remarkably little is known about the extent and manifestations of ageism in the workplace. This is because pressures for anti-ageist measures have come chiefly from sources other than employees, with different stakeholders pursuing varying objectives. Accordingly, the concept of ageism is vague, malleable and shifting and it remains unknown what version(s) employees' embrace. Moreover, the predominant research focus upon employers' attitudes is an insufficient basis from which to judge the salience, manifestations and complexities of the issue at workplace level. Surveys among employees are less common and have produced widely varying estimates of the extent of age discrimination, because of varying definitions of the phenomenon and the use of sample surveys restricted to specific age groups. Little is therefore known about how ageism affects different ages and categories of employees, which reduces the scope for evaluating or improving the impact of legal remedies. Such dimensions require investigation within the same survey instrument if useful comparisons are to be drawn.

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The collection of papers is indexed at TD/TNC 81.21; available papers are indexed from TD/TNC 81.22 to TD/TNC 81.40. Show less

In many countries economic and social concerns associated with ageing populations have focused attention onto flexible forms of working as key to encouraging people to work longer and delay retirement. This article argues that there has been a remarkable lack of attention paid to the role of gender in extending working lives and contends that this gap has arisen because of two, inter-related, oversights: little consideration of relationships between gender and flexible working beyond the child-caring phase of life; and the prevailing tendency to think of end of working life and retirement as gender-neutral or following a typical male trajectory. The findings of a qualitative study of people aged 50+ in the UK challenge some of the key assumptions underpinning the utility of flexible work in extending working lives, and provide insight into the ways in which working in later life is constructed and enacted differently for men and women.

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Given the changing demographic profile of the Scottish population, and the forecast declines of new market entrants, people aged 50 and over will comprise an increasingly important part of the Scottish workforce. Recent research suggests that the economy is adversely affected by the low level of participation among older workers and that unemployment among older workers is higher in Scotland than the rest of the UK (Brown, 2001). Previous research has stressed employers' ignorance of these demographic changes and their consequences for employment, both nationally (Taylor and Walker, 1994) and within Scotland (Brown, 2001). The authors are currently undertaking research to examine, in greater depth, the position of older workers within the Scottish labour market. The research aims to better understand the position of the current cohort of over 50s, both working and non-working, and to explore issues which encourage, dissuade or prevent continued participation in the labour market.

Excerpts from published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner.

The collection of papers is indexed at TD/TNC 81.21; available papers are indexed from TD/TNC 81.22 to TD/TNC 81.40. Show less