Everyone is agreed. Our social care cannot cope with our ageing society. Camilla Cavendish is researching how to help those who are aged (“Making old age better is possible — and necessary”, Opinion, FT.com, August 31). But we are failing to challenge those who are causing swaths of our population to age too quickly — namely our employers.
A million people aged over 50 want to work, but employers will not employ them. Ageism and discrimination is rife. One HR director publicly said he would not look at CVs where applicants had worked in one organisation for 20 or 30 years. Whenever I post on LinkedIn about the 50-plus age group wanting to work, I get 50,000 to 85,000 responses. Thousands of people are frustrated but have no voice.
So I will now speak for them. As a businesswoman, I hate suggesting bureaucracy. But I now believe employers should have to report on age diversity and commit to employing 30 per cent of their workforce in age group bands 50-plus, 60-plus and 70-plus. And not just as drivers. Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott write in their book The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity that the aged have to face up to working into their seventies or even eighties. Chance would be a fine thing!
We already have 1mn people at home, using savings too early, who will run out of money. They will age 10 years quicker than they should and be two and a half times more likely to get Alzheimer’s. We have to stop this rot now — these people could be part of the social care answer, not adding to the burden.
Victoria Tomlinson (aged 69 and still going strong)
Chief Executive, Next-Up,
Harrogate, North Yorkshire, UK
