When it comes to enterprise support, are the over 50s a disadvantaged minority group?

Laurie South

Traditionally we have seen youth, women, ethnic minorities and those with disabilities as priority groups for the public and the charitable purse. There are numerous programmes and organisations providing for these groups. So what is it about the workless over 50s?

It is useful to unpack what we mean by a disadvantaged minority group and why we think enterprise support is needed. There seem to be five key criteria:

(i) A dispersed but significantly sized group: the numbers and geographic spread mean that the group cannot be catered for easily
(ii) Financial disadvantage resulting from worklessness
(iii) An ingrained cultural perspective that makes us feel there is a need to help this group, but no political will strong enough to overcome the factors that create the disadvantage
(iv) An inherent belief that enterprise can be a solution
(v) An assumption that this group cannot be satisfactorily catered for by the mainstream support

What is interesting is that we use the word minority but we really do not mean a small group. To call youth and women small groups is to stretch imagination.

So how do the over 50s workless fit into these categories?

The geographic dispersal of the workless aged 50-64 across the UK is available from NOMIS but of the 50 to 64 age group, one in three is not in work. The number of workless in this age group (i.e. those who are economically inactive plus those who are registered unemployed) is 3.95 millions.



Table 1 is an attempt to understand how this 3.95 million breaks down by using the ONS November 2010 figures, estimating the number of people on Incapacity Benefit / Employment Support Allowance, and calculating the numbers who are caring, the numbers on an inadequate pension and those on an adequate pension using the calculations that the Cabinet Office in their 2000 paper “Winning the Generation Game”.  An estimate of the number of people on Incapacity is made because these data are not broken down by age.

While these numbers must be treated as estimates, they give an indicative picture of what is happening to people aged 50-64. A large number of people are either caring or living on an inadequate pension. There is also a large group of people whom we know nothing about, save that they are not in work.

The fact is that if we do nothing in the 50 – 64 labour market there will be another 1 million workless by 2026. The problem comes down to ageism in the labour market: redundant at 50 and six months unemployed: your chances of ever getting a job are one in ten. Self-employment is one of the few ways of becoming financially independent.

There is huge financial disadvantage in being workless. The problem is that culturally we have not seen this group as in poverty. We have not taken on board that at 50 someone has potentially a third of their lives in front of them, and this period has to be financed. There is little hope of going back to mum and dad for someone in their 50s. The cost of worklessness amongst the over 50s in welfare payments and lost Gross Value Added per head is over £70 billion. As a nation we have not accepted what is happening. There have even been a spate of books suggesting the over 50s have “robbed” youth and are hanging on to the wealth of the country.

The majority of those who are workless have never thought about self-employment since they expected to work until retirement. Starting their own business has not been something they had generally considered. Suddenly it is the only option, and they know nothing about it. There are schemes galore on enterprise for youth: there is very little on enterprise for the 50+. The usual assumption is that they should try and find a job, but if they fail, they can be told about self-employment. But these are the very people who are most likely to have the life skills, knowledge and experience to start a business. PRIME's work shows that they need to explore self-employment in a non-threatening context. In practise this means they need to work with their peers. The mainstream – assuming it can be found now – offers an environment that threatens self-esteem.

PRIME is the only national organisation committed to enterprise in the over 50s. PRIME helps the workless over 50s to become aware of the self-employment opportunity, provide them with confidence, personal development, mentoring and advice, offer a loan to those that cannot borrow money elsewhere and furnish on-going help and information through regular e-letters. Sounds easy but there are two issues:

(i) Our knowledge of this age group has been based on very little research: the major effort has been elsewhere - with some notable exceptions:
(ii) Providing enterprise support when it is virtually the only option still costs money, and, as individuals, corporations and a polity, we still appear unready  to make this investment

Under-researched and ill-financed, the over 50s are clearly a disadvantaged minority when it comes to enterprise support.

Laurie South, Chief Executive, PRIME – The Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise

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