Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Steve Webb and Gerry Sutcliffe

Monday 1st September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Steve Webb]

My hon. Friend is quite right that older workers have valuable knowledge and experience and that employers who fail to retain their older workers are losing important skills from their work force. However, I can assure my hon. Friend and the centenarians who will be attending his event in Southend that we do not require them actively to seek work.

[Mr Gerry Sutcliffe (Bradford South) (Lab)]

What will the Government do to support those workers who, owing to the raising of the pension age in some key public services, might not be physically active enough to do their current jobs?

[Steve Webb]

The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. In a world where people will be of working age for potentially 50 years, assuming that they will do a single job for their whole life is increasingly unrealistic. We need to do a great deal more to enable people to transition into less physically demanding jobs. We have recently piloted something called the mid-life career review, which starts people thinking much earlier about what they might be able to do later in life and other courses of action that might be open to them. We also need to challenge employer attitudes, which we are doing.