Age bias ban avoided by firms
Holiday companies and insurance firms will be able to avoid a ban on age discrimination, the Government has announced. There had been fears the Equality Bill would prevent tour operators such as Saga or Club 18-30 organising holidays for specific age groups. But junior equalities minister Michael Foster said a series of exceptions would be made to the Bill for "specialist group holidays", financial service providers and insurers.
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(Source: The Press Association)
Pru fears people unaware state pension will fall short
Nearly a fifth (18 per cent) of people planning to retire this year have no pension of their own and as such will have to rely on the state pension and their savings, Prudential has warned. Furthermore, according to the recent research from Prudential, a third (31 per cent) of those planning to retire in 2010 have no idea how much the basic state pension actually pays out, with many over-estimating the individual weekly amount by £25 or more.
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(Source: FT Adviser)
2m pensioners live in poverty, say ONS
The number of pensioners living in poverty in the UK fell by nearly a third in the 10 years to 2007/08, official figures showed today, but there were still an estimated 2 million living below the breadline. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the number of pensioners in poverty had fallen from 2.9 million in 1998/99, but that 2 million were still living on less than 60% of the median UK income after housing costs.
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(Source: Guardian)
Retirement age abolishment would herald major HR rethink
Proposals by the UK’s equality watchdog to abolish a default retirement age would require a careful rethink of many existing HR policies and practices, according to one consultancy. A report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission has recommended that the government scrap a law, which enables employers to force staff to finish work at 65 if they are male and 60 if they are female, because it was outdated.
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(Source: HR Zone)
One in ten over-70s still pay to support their children
Nearly one in ten over-70s are still paying to support their children, the equality watchdog said yesterday. Hundreds of thousands of elderly people are bearing the financial burden of a family despite having had to retire in their sixties.
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(Source: Daily Mail)
Abolish Default Retirement Age, urges NIACE
NIACE believes that the UK cannot afford to waste the talents of older workers as it emerges from recession. This is the main message of its response to the Government's consultation on the default retirement age, and is clearly supported by the report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). However, this abolition needs to be linked to significant investment in training and careers guidance for people over 50 and not limited to younger people.
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(Source: NIACE)
Britain needs to change its working attitude to the over 50s
A
quiet revolution is taking place in attitudes towards ageing and work. The stereotype used to say that older workers were winding down as they watched the clock. Research from the Equality and Human Rights Commission shows that the opposite is true. More than half of people aged 50 and over hope to keep on working past the state pension age.
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(Source: Times)
