Unemployment over 50
People over 50 who have lost their job in the last year are finding it much harder than younger people to return to work. The latest unemployment figures show that among people who have been looking for work for six to twelve months the rate of unemployment has risen nearly twice as fast among the over fifties as those aged 25-49. For the older group it is up by 61% compared with a rise of 32% for the younger group. The rate of unemployment for those out of work for up to six months also grew much faster among the older workers – up 65% on a year ago compared with 51% up for those aged 25-49. Only at the longer periods out of work did the unemployment rate change less for older workers. Overall unemployment among the over 50s was nearly 50% higher in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2008 whereas among people aged 25 to 49 the increase was just over 40%. The figures fly in the face of new laws on age discrimination which apply to recruitment as well as to conditions at work. Age Concern and Help the Aged has called on the Government to step in with special programmes to help people over 50 get back to work.

While those over 50 struggle to get another job, the figures also show that the number of people working after pension age is still growing – up from less than 1.2 million two years ago to almost 1.35 million this year. The trend is seen particularly among women. The number working after they reach 60 has risen by more than 100,000 in two years to reach 912,000 in the first quarter of 2009. For the first time more than one in eight women who can draw their state pension is still at work. That compares with about one in ten of men with only 436,000 working past pension age. That number is slightly down on a year ago though still 40,000 up on the same period in 2007. One reason for the difference in numbers is that women reach state pension age at 60, while men must wait until 65. Women’s pension age begins to rise from next April and will reach 65 from April 2020.

Source: Labour Force Survey

The amounts given out are generally small, but vital – £300 for a cooker, £150 for a telephone bill, £1050 for an electric wheelchair, £200 for clothes and even £85 for a food bill or £125 for a holiday. Advisers also make sure that people who apply for help are claiming all they can get from the state. One 85 year old widow of a sailor was given money for an electric scooter as well as a small annual amount but the help to claim Attendance Allowance was the most valuable she got. Another grateful beneficiary of the Timber Trades Benevolent Society wrote "Thank you for telling us in advance we could expect a cheque towards fuel bills in March. That saved anxiety during those very cold weeks."

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Over 65s more likely to be fraud victims
One in three of the people targeted by fraudsters is over 65. Many older people have cash savings and are fed up with the low returns from the banks. That can make them particularly vulnerable to crooks offering them better returns through shares in a Bolivian mining company which has just hit the mother lode and needs discreet foreign investors.

Essentially all scams are the same. The crooks tell you a lie. You give them money. They disappear. And only then do you realise that you have been robbed. The Office of Fair Trading says that £3.5 billion a year is stolen off people through scams and that more than three million of us – about one person in twenty – are victims. Research by the OFT found that the scams which work best target people already familiar with the field the fraud is set in. For example, people who already do genuine prize draws are more likely to fall for a lottery scam. And those who have some shares are most likely to fall for investment scams.

The Financial Services Authority in its own research found that victims have usually researched the deal. But the fraudsters are well practised in deceit. If you ask ‘why are you not regulated by the FSA’ they claim they are regulated overseas and invite you to check a website – which the thieves have in fact set up themselves. And once people have taken that first step the next one is easier until you are positively running down the slippery slope to financial ruin. The FSA says 3000 people a year come to it after losing an average of £20,000 each to fraudulent share scams. And the arrest of six people in the UK in May will hardly dent the crooked business. The only answer is to say ‘no’ to every – and I mean every – unsolicited offer of easy money. Always remember what they say in the City of London– a gold mine is a hole in the ground with dirt at the bottom and a fool at the top.