Image by Tina Tiller<\/p>\n
In more recent years, with the cost of living going up and people\u2019s disposable income going down, Leah\u2019s income through sex work has reduced dramatically. \u201cIt\u2019s gone really, really quiet,\u201d she says. \u201cI got really sick of the insecure money situation, but I\u2019m also sick of always having to watch your back if you\u2019re in accommodation, because landlords will kick you out. You just get so fed up with all the stigma stuff.\u201d She started to see a therapist through the New Zealand Sex Workers Collective about her options, and was encouraged to look into studying counselling again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leah is far from alone in seeking out a new career later in life. According to the Office for Seniors, people over the age of 50 years old now make up a third of the workforce, while people aged 50-64 also make up 30% of those receiving the Jobseeker benefit in Aotearoa<\/a>. Seniors at Work, an online network for those over 50 looking for work opportunities, experienced a 50% uptick in sign-ups last year<\/a>. It is now estimated there are over 150,000 people over the age of 50<\/a> currently looking for work, while over 17,500 university students are aged over 55.\u00a0<\/p>\n After doing a bit of research, Leah discovered her \u201cdream job\u201d in creative therapies. \u201cI finally found something where I could use my creativity, alongside my lived experience of addiction, to help people,\u201d she says. \u201cAlso, because of all my time in sex work and hospitality, I have so much experience dealing with people from all walks of life.\u201d She gathered her references together and applied for Whitecliffe\u2019s coveted Creative Arts Therapies course. After an agonising months-long wait, she found out in December she was one of 25 students accepted into the course.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt like I was in a dream,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI was so excited.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But when she rang Studylink to add living costs to her student loan, she was told she couldn\u2019t access the additional financial support due to her age. As per the Studlink website, once you turn 55 you cannot add living costs or course-related costs to your loan<\/a>. Leah was left \u201cbeside myself\u201d with the news and had to give up her place on the Whitecliffe course as there was no way she could earn enough money to survive and pay rent while also studying full time. \u201cIt\u2019s really cut me off at the knees,\u201d she says. \u201cI feel like I have no future any more, which is really scary.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Having the door closed on her new career has contributed \u201cmassively\u201d to her mental health distress, including anxiety and depression, Leah says. \u201cI know I can\u2019t do sex work forever and I can\u2019t work in hospitality anymore because of my legs, and the job market is just absolutely crazy when you\u2019ve got thousands of people applying for the same customer service role<\/a>.\u201d She characterises the Studylink policy as age-based discrimination. \u201cYou basically have to be rich, or have a rich partner, or have property, or have a trust fund to support you through it,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n David Marshall is the vice-president of Grey Power, an advocacy group for New Zealanders over the age of 50, and agrees that the Studylink policy is a form of age-based discrimination. \u201cGrey Power is very concerned that such an ageist policy remains in place, especially at a time when many older people are being made redundant in their 50s and 60s, and need to be upskilled to secure meaningful employment,\u201d he says. \u201cDenying financial support to this cohort is clearly an ageist policy that needs to be revoked as soon as possible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Since 2021, the Human Rights Commission has received 23 age-related complaints connected to \u201ceducation or student support such as StudyLink, student allowances and loans, tertiary providers, and other education or training settings.\u201d On the question of age discrimination, Katrina Sutich, general manager of tertiary policy at the Ministry of Education, tells The Spinoff that the ineligibility of over 55s to receive living costs and course-related costs is \u201cbecause of the higher risk of non-repayment,\u201d in comparison with other borrowers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Ministry of Education\u2019s non-discrimination obligations under human rights legislation were carefully considered prior to the introduction of aged-based limits on student loans and allowances in 2013 and are viewed as consistent with these obligations,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n While Marshall at Grey Power believes that the age limit on Studylink financial support should be abolished, and that allowing access to education at all ages should be a \u201ccritical component\u201d in the government\u2019s commitment to increasing productivity, Sutich says there are currently no plans to change the eligibility criteria for students aged 55 and over. \u201cAny future changes to student support eligibility and entitlements would need to be considered alongside wider funding priorities within tertiary education and across portfolios,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the meantime, Leah is continuing to assess her avenues for retraining as a counsellor. \u201cMy only other option is to go through a rehab and start out as a peer support worker, but that will take me years and years,\u201d she says. Further frustrating matters are the constant headlines about counsellor shortages across the country<\/a>. \u201cI know people waiting for sexual abuse claims for ACC counsellors who\u2019ve waited eight months, and they still don\u2019t have a therapist,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd here\u2019s me trying to get into the industry, but there\u2019s these huge barriers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI could work well into my 70s doing that job,\u201d she adds. \u201cI\u2019ve still got so much to give.\u201d<\/p>\n *Name has been changed for privacy reasons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With one in three Jobseeker beneficiaries now over the age of 50, there are calls for the government…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14325,138,492,9329,179863,111,139,69,1053,2935,179864,171079],"class_list":["post-335518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-ageism","tag-business","tag-comments-enabled","tag-job-market","tag-mature-students","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-seniors","tag-society","tag-studylink","tag-tertiary-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The summary on the Studylink page<\/p>\n
David Marshall, vice president at Grey Power<\/p>\n