Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall is in charge of reforming the state pension and benefits system <\/p>\n
The economy faces a \u201cmidlife crisis\u201d after a fresh study revealed the number of jobless benefit claimants aged 50 or older has reached nearly two million for the first time.<\/p>\n
A new report from the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ<\/a>) has shown the number of 50 to 64-year-olds who are out of work and claiming benefits<\/a> has surged by 600,000 to 1.99 million since February 2020.<\/p>\n The research showed a 21 per cent uptick since 2015 in older individuals exiting the workforce due to health conditions.<\/p>\n But the report outlined that GPs had lacked the time and resources to provide assessments on adjustments that could be made in order for individuals to stay in work.<\/p>\n It comes as 93 per cent of the 2.7 million receiving fit notes in the final quarter of 2024\/25 were labelled \u201cnot fit for work\u201d. Just seven per cent were handed \u201cmay be fit for work\u201d.<\/p>\n The CSJ said the figures reflected a system that \u201cdefaults to full sickness absence\u201d.<\/p>\n Labour MP Carolyn Harris, vice chair of the CSJ, said: \u201cAs this timely report shows, the UK economy is facing a \u2018midlife crisis\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Harris called for the government to pilot a \u201cNational Work and Health Service\u201d in a bid to help \u201cstem the flow\u201d of the near 300,000 exiting the Labour market due to sickness.<\/p>\n The report said the new service would help reduce unnecessary workforce drop-out for older workers and \u201ckeep them meaningfully engaged with employment, even if at a reduced level\u201d.<\/p>\n It also recommended age-specialist careers guidance through the new National Jobs and Careers Service.<\/p>\n Mercy Muroki, development director at the CSJ, said: \u201cBy adopting the measures set out in this report, the Government can improve labour market outcomes for older people, reduce welfare dependency, and build a more inclusive, resilient labour market.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cEven a modest rise in employment among economically inactive people over 50 could generate billions in tax revenue and welfare savings.\u201d<\/p>\n The calls come after the Treasury faced a daunting warning from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research that Rachel Reeves would need to raise more than \u00a350bn <\/a>in fresh taxes to stay within her \u201ciron clad\u201d fiscal rules.<\/p>\n The Chancellor had hoped a string of welfare reforms would shed \u00a35bn<\/a> in spending but fierce backlash from party rebels led to a government row back.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall is in charge of reforming the state pension and benefits system The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,31508,31506,1294,31507,31505,31509,31511,56,54,55,31510],"class_list":{"0":"post-57904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-carolyn-harris","10":"tag-centre-for-social-justice","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-liz-kendall","13":"tag-midlife-crisis","14":"tag-sickness-absence","15":"tag-timely-report","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom","19":"tag-work-and-pensions-secretary"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}