“It’s a busy environment with people coming in and out at all hours of the day. There is no way I could work in this office safely,” he says. “The doctor says I’m still at extremely high clinical risk.” The 52-year-old is fit and able to work – but given her role can only be fully performed from the office, Green fears she will lose her job in the near future. “There are no guidelines for employers anymore – so they say I will eventually be fired. It is extremely difficult. In two weeks I don’t know if I’ll still have a job.” Green belongs to an age group whose working lives have been particularly affected by the tumultuous events of the past two and a half years. Since Covid broke out, the number of 50- to 64-year-olds who are economically inactive – neither working nor looking for work – has risen by 375,000. graph of economic inertia Overall, 27.6% of this age group is now inactive. This is an increase of 2.4 percentage points from before the pandemic – a much larger change than the 1.5 percentage point increase in the total working-age population. Some of those over-50s leaving the workforce are among the record 2.49 million people now out of work because of long-term health conditions – an army of missing workers that has exacerbated inflation by creating staff shortages, pushing up wages. Others over 50 have deliberately downsized or chosen to retire – or were prompted to make a change for other reasons. “It’s a mixture of things,” says Chris Brooks, head of policy at the charity Age UK. “There are certainly people being forced out of work at the moment because there is still a shortage of the right kinds of jobs, which means if you have caring responsibilities or if you’re dealing with a health condition then it can be quite difficult to find the right work”. The Office for National Statistics has surveyed people aged 50 to 65 who have left work since the start of the pandemic to ask them about their health and financial situation. . Among the over-55s, the enforced pause many faced during the lockdown appears to have caused a rush to get out. By far the biggest reason given by this older group was that they had retired or wanted a ‘lifestyle change’. Among younger 50-55 year olds, many pointed to health as a factor – 19% said stress had been involved, 13% cited illness and 17% said they “didn’t feel supported at work”. Respondents were allowed to indicate more than one factor. However, recent analysis of separate ONS data by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) showed that many of the 50 to 64-year-olds who are now unable to work due to long-term illness have already been out of the labor market for five years or more. The authors, Jonathan Cribb and Bee Boileau, argue that “two different issues appear to be at stake: rising levels of ill-health among the older non-working population (which is worrying in itself) and rising levels of inactivity which are largely due to from people leaving work for reasons other than health – especially because they have decided to retire”. A separate report for thinktank Demos, published on Wednesday, calls on the government to develop an aging workforce strategy to help encourage over-50s to return to work – or stop them leaving in the first place. It recommends measures including tax breaks for workplaces that provide occupational health support and closer integration of health care with employment support. “The government must not forget the lesson the pandemic has taught us, that people’s health and economic well-being are closely linked,” says the report’s author, Andrew Phillips. Financially, many who have left the workplace are taking advantage of the pension freedoms introduced by then chancellor George Osborne in 2015, allowing over-55s on defined contribution schemes to draw down their pension funds early. Former pensions minister Steve Webb, now at consultancy Lane Clark and Peacock, says some people “have stopped working, possibly by choice and possibly by circumstance, or a mixture, they’ve paid a bill or an energy cost and ‘I thought, “I can’t get by without touching my pension,” and now they’re sinking.” Asked if they might be creating problems for the future by stripping their retirement savings early, he says, “yeah, of course you’d much rather people didn’t touch their pensions, and what happens when they’re 80 and all the rest of it. On the other hand, it’s their money, they have a need now and they can use it and make their choice.” He adds: “We’re all a bit short-sighted, but people are kind of picking up on the fact that they can’t spend the same pound twice.” Green, attached to her police work, is pinning her hopes on a drug – Evusheld, made by AstraZeneca – which has been licensed in several other countries in a bid to protect immunocompromised people from Covid. Subscribe to Business Today Get ready for the business day – we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. She and thousands of others are campaigning to allow the government to deploy in the UK – something the Department of Health and Social Care has said there is insufficient evidence for. Meanwhile, he says: “Our risk is one in three of serious illness and death if we contract Covid – and not many people would want to walk out the door facing that.” Susan (who did not want us to use her real name) is currently trying to negotiate medical retirement from her job as a civil servant. Before the pandemic, she went to work every day and managed the pain of an inflammatory arthritis condition, but after a period of staying at home during successive lockdowns, she realized how hard work was on her health – and how much she enjoyed gardening and to see her family instead. “I went back for a while and I was struggling,” he says. “I have reached a point in my life where I can afford not to work, which has never happened before. I think that’s true for a lot of people over 50.” He would consider taking another job – but only under the right circumstances. “I will think about something, but it will be very much on my terms in the future. My entire working life, almost 40 years, has been doing what I’m told to do. I’m really very happy,” she says. Among those surveyed by the ONS, 58% said they would consider returning to work. When this group was asked what factors might be important in enticing them to take a job, flexible working came out on top, identified by 32% of people, followed by 23% who cited good pay. With many employers struggling to recruit staff, David Hale, head of public affairs at the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), says sensitive management is key to helping people sort out issues such as caring responsibilities or health issues. “If you look specifically at health conditions, it’s often either fluctuating pain or fluctuating mental conditions. It’s day-to-day flexibility – probably best managed in the workplace through high-quality line management.” The FSB would like to see guidelines for GPs from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on conditions such as depression, anxiety and menopause changed to include recommending discussion about management at work. Steve Dodd at Thurstaston Hill on the Wirral Peninsula. Photo: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian Steve Dodd, 52, is among those who have changed their work lives since the pandemic hit, out of choice. He was an English teacher at the university, but faced with declining student numbers and the prospect of heavy hybrid courses, he turned the part-time volunteer work he did tutoring children to complete the Duke of Edinburgh’s award program into a job. “I’m a freelancer and it’s either the missions or face-to-face classroom teaching,” he says. “I understood that very well, because of course I’m used to standing in front of students.” He is now taking a mountain leadership qualification and hopes to open an outdoor center near his home in Wirral. “I never wanted to make money from my hobby because I thought it was my personal thing,” he says. “But taking the kids on the missions, I really enjoy that. You get great feedback.” Covid may have receded into the public consciousness, to be replaced by political permacrisis. but it seems to have led to a lasting change in the lives and livelihoods of many thousands of older workers.
