![INCENTIVES PAYING OFF – Department of Employment secretary Renee Leon addresses the COTA forum. INCENTIVES PAYING OFF – Department of Employment secretary Renee Leon addresses the COTA forum.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/71c8d2dc-aafb-40d2-9e2f-92aad68b6cdc.jpg/r0_0_1024_533_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
by KIRSTY STEIN
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AUSTRALIA has jumped five places in the past year in OECD rankings for employment of mature age workers.
However, Pricewaterhouse Coopers data released in June shows it is our neighbour New Zealand that continues to excel in the area, maintaining second place internationally behind Iceland.
“If Australia could match New Zealand’s mature age employment rate, Australia could generate an annual average increase of $24 billion in nominal gross domestic product,” Pricewaterhouse Coopers spokesman Jon Williams said.
“Employing more mature workers doesn’t block the path for younger workers, it actually makes our nation stronger as more workers generates more demand and therefore more jobs in the economy.” Mr Williams said Australia needed to change its “social bias” towards older workers.
He said the appointment of Age Discrimination Commissioner Susan Ryan as the first ambassador for mature age employment and changes to boost take-up of the $10,000 Restart wage subsidy were both great steps forward.
Department of Employment secretary Renee Leon told the recent Council on the Ageing national policy forum in Canberra there were still many unfair barriers to work for older people.
She said more than 1600 people had been placed in jobs under Restart, and changes in this year’s budget that allowed employers to receive the funding immediately after starting the worker, and to pool funding if they took on 10 or more people under the scheme, were expected to lead to exponential growth.
Employers and older workers in particular communities are now the target of programs designed to help match skills and needs on a community level.
Older men are among those being targeted, particularly those who were involved in the declining manufacturing sector.
“One problem is that the industries that are in decline tend to be the ones that employ a considerable number of workers who are middle aged and older,” Ms Leon said.
“But these things are often very local – there’s not a single policy across that very diverse cohort of older people who are seeking work.”
The forum heard older workers who lost their jobs still spent an average 75 weeks unemployed – “a crushingly long time” compared with 43 weeks for the general population – and were more likely to become discouraged and give up.
To add to the distress, many did not qualify for the Newstart allowance because they had more than $3000 in liquid assets ($5000 for couples).
The department has worked with major national employers including Bunnings, which has 25 per cent of its workforce aged over 50, and the Accor hotel group. It also operates targeted local programs around the country.
Mature employment kick-start
THE Restart mature age employment program offers an incentive of up to $10,000 for employers for each eligible jobseeker they employ.
Jobseekers must be 50 or over and must have been unemployed and receiving income support for a minimum of six months.
The subsidy is paid over two years, but changes in the 2015-16 budget mean from November 1 employers will receive the full payment over the first 12 months.
Under the new arrangements, employers will be able to receive payments as often as fortnightly from the time the person starts in the job, with the final $3500 paid once they have been employed for 12 months.
The full rate is for jobseekers who are employed for at least 30 hours a week. Employers who take on jobseekers for 15-29 hours will receive a pro rata amount.
The program does not cover commission-based, sub-contract or self-employed positions. The role must be ongoing and sustainable.
Details at 131-715, www.employment.gov.au/restart
Healthy enough to work at 70?
WORKING to 70 will be a challenge for one in four Australian men and one in five women who are expected to be in fair or poor health in 2035, when the age pension age hits that mark.
The AMP and National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) Income and Wealth report, released in June, found health would be critical in the later years of working life and saving for retirement.
While the good news was that Australians are living longer, many may not be healthy enough to maintain a full-time job at age 70.
The research has implications for retirement planning and how people balance their health and earning capacity.
It showed that more than one in five men and one in four women who said they were in good health at age 65 were in fair or poor health by 70.
For Australians who retired in the past five years, the average retirement age is 63.3 for men and 59.6 for women.
NATSEM research director Laurie Brown said the report showed Australians in good health were more than twice as likely to be in the workforce as those in poor health, and this had implications as health changed with age.
“Currently, the majority of Australians leave the workforce before age 65,” she said. “With the possibility of this increasing to 70 over the next 20 years, younger Australians need to consider the importance of their long-term health and its impact on career, wealth and retirement.”
AMP chief customer officer Paul Sainsbury said the report suggested that rather than simply working longer, people needed to rethink their approach to retirement and implement transition periods with reduced levels of work, allowing them to focus on their wellbeing while still earning and saving money.
Of workers aged 60-69:
- Just over half are professionals, and people with tertiary qualifications are most likely to be employed at older ages.
- About 49 per cent of workers have post-school qualifications, compared with 30 per cent whose highest education was Year 12.
- About a quarter of men are employed in the manufacturing, electricity or construction sectors and 49 per cent of women work in the education and health sectors.