Acknowledging that complications around pensions and the ‘hows’ of re-entry must yet be resolved, employment minister Guy Opperman, shadow employment rights minister Justin Madders and Lord Bridges of Headley, chair of the Economic Affairs Committee, all shared views of potential solutions to one of the UK’s thorniest economic problems.

The event, a celebration of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC)’s report ‘Overcoming Shortages: How to create a sustainable labour market’, was originally scheduled for November but had to be delayed. It was hosted by MP Jim Shannon.

Describing the REC report as “timely”, Opperman said: “One of the key elements that I am attempting to do is try and get back into employment those who have stepped away from employment, either because of affluence… or because they’re disengaged in the labour market. There are many things we’re doing with it.”

Madders added: “As we all know, this is a trend that has increased in recent years, especially because of the pandemic. It’s very clear that there are hundreds of thousands of people that would like to get back to [work] but at the moment, they lack that individualised support that they require… we think this is a massive waste of potential that we would hopefully unleash through specialist employment support and social security reform, which will devolve to local areas for tailored assistance.”

The shadow minister said changes envisioned to the welfare system “will transform job centres into ‘escalators’ that will convey people to higher levels of pay security”. Too often, Madders said, job centres served as a conveyor belt that turned into “a revolving door, and we’ve got to break that cycle”.

He continued: “We want to fix the Access to Work scheme to provide targeted help for over-50s. We will also reform the workplace mobility assessment regime to facilitate those on benefits who want to return to the labour market… without risk of losing their benefits.”

As well as calling on government to establish labour market rights in areas such as zero-hours contracts, establish fair pay agreements across the economy, and to also establish “a single enforcement body” to have oversight, Madders added that Labour wanted to work with the REC and its members “as we develop our agenda”.

Lord Bridges said: “We need to ask some very profound questions about what we’re doing to help and encourage people over the age of 50 to stay in work. Are we helping enough people retrain when they’re in work? This can be quite daunting at times, however learning new skills is very important.”

He affirmed that studying and developing tax and pension reforms in light of encouraging over-50s to re-enter the workforce would have to be a priority along with creating a partnership with business to create more solutions. 

He also complimented the REC on its report, going onto say: “I do pay tribute to what the REC is doing in terms of contributing facts and figures analysis to the debate.”

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