Yahoo Finance Government to launch bid to encourage over-50s to end early retirement
Rishi Sunak is planning to encourage thousands of over-50s back to work with a “midlife MOT” in a bid to boost the economy.
Around 630,000 have left the workforce since 2019 and employment figures are still not back to pre-pandemic levels, according to Government figures.
A new personal MOT would allow workers to assess their financial health. It is believed that many over-50s decided to take early retirement based on assumptions made before the recent cost of living crisis.
The assessment would also be used to help them identify opportunities for part-time or flexible work, mentoring and skills training, The Times reported.
It came after a survey this week found that the number of over-50s out of jobs since the start of the Covid crisis is helping drive a workers shortage.
The Office for National Statistics study looked at 50 to 65-year-olds who haven’t worked since the start of the pandemic but who would consider going back .
It found 24 per cent gave up work planning to retire after Covid struck, ranking above redundancy, stress and the pandemic itself as reasons they stopped.
Taking early retirement is the biggest of four factors in a new House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report entitled ‘Where have all the workers gone?’
It found there are 565,000 more ‘economically inactive’ people of all ages than before the pandemic.
The ONS report found that of all those aged 50 plus who were considering returning to work, 61 per cent were between 50 to 59. Money was the biggest factor for the possible u-turn.
Encouraging retired people back into employment is seen as one way to tackle a shortage of staff in certain sectors.
