Age and Inequality

Task Write down an inequality which is experienced by people under 18. Discuss Now write down an inequality experienced by those over 65.

Age and work There are rules restricting work available to young people and what they can earn In 2009, ONS statistics showed that the country's overall jobless rate is currently 6%, but among 18-24-year-olds it is 14% and among 16-17-year-olds it is 26%. In 2008 almost 30% of all unemployed people were young The National Opinion Poll research suggested that 85% of over-50s believed that there is discrimination against older workers; 20% of over-50s said that they had had direct experience of age discrimination.

Evidence which supports A 2005 study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development of 2682 managers and personnel professionals, show that age discrimination persists in many organisations. In 2001, research by Zmira Hornste that was published by the JRF suggested that legislation protecting people from age discrimination changed employer behaviour in the sense that discrimination against older workers was no longer explicit.

Evaluation Forbidding employers to set compulsory retirement ages may even have made them a bit less likely to hire older workers. On the other hand, companies such as B and Q encourage older workers to apply for work with them believing them to have a range of experiences and knowledge to draw on.

Age and Poverty Burholt and Windle, in research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2006) attempted to compare the financial resources of different groups of older people and to discover which groups of people were most vulnerable to poverty. Older people who are become poor remain poor and can do little about the position that they find themselves in. They suffer multiple deprivations as they are vulnerable to loneliness and disability. Generally these people are uneducated, living in poor areas, female and in poor health. Often they are widowed or separated. It is those people who have to survive on state pensions rather than occupational pensions who have the poorest experience of old age

Evidence that supports The Scottish Widows Pension Index in 2007 surveyed more than 5,000 people and found just 49 per cent are setting aside adequate sums for their old age. Their results suggested that of the 51% who will rely on basic state pension, almost a quarter have no savings at all. They suggest that women who stay at home to look after children will be most vulnerable to poverty in old age. A study by Bardasi for the JRF (2002) pointed out that another vulnerable group was people who became unemployed in their early 50s. In the same study, it was also shown that women who were divorced or single were substantially likely to experience poverty in old age.

Age Concern in 2005 claim that carers save the UK £15 billion, and yet they are likely to experience poverty themselves in old age. Women in their 50s are most likely to be caring with nearly one in four providing care. An ESRC publication in 2003, Growing Older in the 21st Century, found that many older people still live in conditions of deprivation and poverty and social exclusion, and the older the person, the greater the deprivation.

Evaluation When elderly are poor often there is care assistance provided by the state Whereas those who made provision for their old age are made to pay heavy costs and will often decline help leaving others to care for them e.g daughters. There is a conundrum where women particularly may have to give up work to care for an elderly relative but receive no help from the state. Older people feel there is a stigma to receiving help from the state.

Identify one other area of inequality and find evidence to support the ideas. Give a couple of evaluative points for each piece of evidence.

Essay plan Complete the essay plan at the back of the booklet.