No Strategy, No Justice: The Age Gap in Employment Policy

In July, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced the launch of the third statutory review of the UK’s state pension age, as required by the Pensions Act 2014. The current age of 66 is set to rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028, and to 68 by 2046, though experts warn this could change and need to be much higher. 

The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that the annual cost of the state pension could reach £200 billion by 2073, consuming up to 8.4% of GDP. Some suggest that without reform, the pension age may need to rise to 70 or even 80 to maintain financial sustainability.

While the government and media frame youth unemployment as a crisis, they ignore the financial and social crisis created by age discrimination also happening under their noses. In 2025, the UK is investing in NEETs (young people Not in Employment, Education or Training) but for the 800,000 older workers who want to work, there’s silence.

No strategy. No support. No justice for older people.

Group	Number Affected	Key Barrier	Investment	Policy Focus	Outcomes
NEETs (16–24)	>923,000	Lack of training and job access	Proposed skills tax relief, employer credits	High: Skills and tax relief proposed	Improving
Older Workers (50+)	>800,000 unemployedbut willing to work	Ageism, health, lack of retraining	No dedicated strategy or incentives	Low: No equivalent national strategy	Worsening

Over 125 business leaders, including executives from Toyota and JCB, have urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to introduce a direct and accessible tax relief for companies that invest in training NEETs. This would cover costs for:

·       Apprenticeships

·       Vocational courses

·       Skills bootcamps

The Centre for Social Justice proposes a 40% tax credit for employers hiring and training NEETs. However, when we look at similar incentives for older people there’s crickets.

Why Aren’t NEET Initiatives Applied to Older Workers?

Despite similar barriers such as skills gaps, exclusion, and age bias, its older workers who are being routinely overlooked in employment policy:

• No dedicated tax relief for hiring or training older workers

• Work and Health Programme outcomes are significantly worse for over 50s

• Age discrimination law is weak and rarely enforced

• Training spend per worker has dropped over the last decade and falls sharply with age

  
  

The Missed Opportunity

According to the Centre for Ageing Better, achieving a 75% employment rate for 50–64 year-olds by 2030 could generate:

• £9 billion year for the economy

• £1.6 billion/year in extra tax revenue

Yet, while the government has set targets for under 25s, no such ambition exists for over 50s.

Call to Action

·       We need a national employment strategy for older workers

·       We need tax reliefs, retraining incentives, and stronger anti-discrimination enforcement

·       We need intergenerational equity and policy parity, because exclusion at any age is still exclusion

·       We urge policymakers, unions, and employers to support the Age Gap Report as a way to collect data and help shape a blueprint for inclusive reform

The government itself acknowledges:

“By the 2070s, the number of pensioners is expected to have increased by over 50%, whereas the working age population will have only grown by over 10%.”

If we don’t tackle age discrimination now, we risk not only financial jeopardy for this country but undermining all the proposed long-term investment in NEETs, because here’s no surprise: those NEETs will also get old.