Government wants to coax over 50s back into work

Eek, wrong thread.

hello

Well I know why it doesn’t work on my iPad, now I just need to work out how to fix it!

At 64 I work because I want to, usually 3 days a week and I’m expected to do the same work as younger staff, I’m lucky I have the health to do that. The money is always welcome, the perks are good, management are efficient and I enjoy working with younger staff.
If I didn’t enjoy the work it would be different and I completely understand those that don’t want to.

Research into organ damage shows long Covid is real despite Johnson's outrageous comment on an official brief.

Aveline

17 million with long Covid. Blimey. That's a lot of people out of the workforce across Europe. It's says something about Covid itself.

My friend has been diagnosed with it, it is debilitating. She is retired anyway but is getting physiotherapy. I've had similar symptoms to hers but her GP surgery is far more aware and caring than ours.

17 million with long Covid. Blimey. That's a lot of people out of the workforce across Europe. It's says something about Covid itself.

At 69 because of Brexit, not to lost points earnt in the UK which the French pension adds to my French pension, I had to retire. However, I kept working but I was taxed so much it was incredible. I had to stop work 18 months later because of covid and the tax bill fell.

Nurseries should be free from the age of 3 so that mothers/ fathers can go back to work without the weight of charges. (I know certain do not agree but it works in France 8am-6pm). This would help people with young children..

There are many healthy refugees willing to work, as soon as they land they should be given ID cards allowing them to earn money to support themselves. Some are qualified in their trades including medical. Have them sit an exam and let them fill the unoccupied jobs.

Aveline

Is it possible to find out long Covid stats for other countries?

www.who.int/europe/news/item/13-09-2022-at-least-17-million-people-in-the-who-european-region-experienced-long-covid-in-the-first-two-years-of-the-pandemic--millions-may-have-to-live-with-it-for-years-to-come

Barmeyoldbat

If it’s lower than average why the push to get the 50 plus back in work, ….

Indeed.

The Government want to coax, people do as they wish.

Fleurpepper I'm sure it is. I'd just be interested to find out if long Covid is an international outcome or is confined to just UK. We'll never know if course.

Aveline

Is it possible to find out long Covid stats for other countries?

Long Covid, like ME - is very difficult to prove.

If it’s lower than average why the push to get the 50 plus back in work, ….

Long term sickness in 50-65 year olds is a red herring in this context, as it’s gone up by less than one percent since the onset of the pandemic (figure 14 in the report refers).
There is a rise in people who have been economically inactive for more than 5 years, but that group is the hardest to reach in terms of returning to work, so arguably is just following the trend that was already there.

As I said in an earlier comment, according to the report it’s important to note that the baseline for economic inactivity was and remains lower than average.

Is it possible to find out long Covid stats for other countries?

Katie59

Looking the ONS graphs it’s the contrast between the UK and other nations who have had far more return to work that stands out, also the number that see themselves at long term sick in the UK after Covid.
Is long Covid a serious problem in the UK but not elsewhere?.

It's possible but I imagine the destruction of the NHS has more to do with this figure.

We retired early and after a year when my health had become stable we went travelling for 4 months every year over the winter. We still kept our home and funded it from living expenses. By going in the winter months we were saving on our unities, Christmas spending and socialising and to top it all the exchange rate was good. It’s no good buying a motor home at some point you are going to have to stop travelling.

Not if you plan it properly. It helps if you have a little private pension, living economically, and leave the investment alone so you can buy a home eventually.
I know someone who did this three years ago and is truly happy away from a very demanding job which almost ruined his health.

I went at 60.. 6 years before my State pension, took my NHS pension, then 2 of my close work chums did the same both mid 50's. In total in our Department 5 went, I was the oldest at 60. We are all Health Care Professionals.
I also know serveral Senior Nurses who did the same.

We now all work in the Hospital Bank a day or two a week, we all did all through Covid too. All of us were asked to do this, due to our skills. I was only gone 3 months before I was asked can I do Bank work?

As for Tax, yep hammered.

And then what Henetha? Old age impinging and no funds left.

One way to retire early is to sell your house, buy a motorhome, invest the rest and enjoy a few years travelling around.

I know one person who retired in his 50s, his wife had already stopped working as they didn't need the money. For context he was working in advertising and driving a company Porsche when the rest of us were struggling to find the rent for a tiny flat and a fourth hand car. Everyone else I know worked till they reached pension age.

There's more sense in his aim to stop the short term sick becoming the long term sick, but we all know what that means. If you are going from phone call to phone call while you wait 18 months for a diagnosis, never mind treatment, you've become long term sick before you realise it. Cue another statement from Jeremy Hunt about the money they are "pouring" into the NHS.

Don't miss out the woke

Sorry, woke more people up it should have said, I missed out the woke.

Again, from the report.

‘27.As pointed out by the Rt Hon Guy Opperman MP, Minister of State for Employment at the Department for Work and Pensions, although recent trends in UK inactivity are internationally unusual, our level of inactivity remains lower than the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average. Indeed, this rise in inactivity follows a declining UK inactivity rate for many years prior to the pandemic. On the one hand, this puts the recent turnaround in perspective: the UK still has a low economic inactivity rate by international standards; and the recent increase takes the UK back to 2016 rates of inactivity. On the other hand, that previous long-term decline makes the recent increase look even more dramatic as a break from trend’.

So, we are still below average. Covid most probably more people up to the fact that they could stop working because they could afford to do so.

This government is trying anyway it can to bury its head in the sand with regards to the effect Brexit had on the country. And the labour market. Good luck to them trying to get the over 50s back to work, they are the ones who are looking after gc, and aged parents and were often in stressful jobs.