Older women need flexible working

More older women are long-term unemployed and fewer working flexible hours.

Older women are falling further behind in the jobs market, two leading UK charities claim.

Analysis by Age UK and Carers UK found that while the total number of people working has grown steadily over the last two years, the significant fall in the number of older women in jobs indicates that many want to work but can’t find suitable employment.

Age UK looked at the Labour Force Survey and found that long-term unemployment among women aged 50-64 rose from 34.5 per cent in 2010 to 40.7 per cent in 2012 – an increase of nearly a fifth.

And in 2012, 36.8 per cent of women worked flexibly, down from 38.3 per cent in 2010.

The charities say that caring commitments - for ageing parents, children and grandchildren - prevent many older women from working traditional hours.

They say that as a result women find themselves locked out of the jobs market and the result is the fall in the numbers working flexibly.

Age UK and Carers UK believe improving opportunities to work flexibly could help many of these unemployed women find work.

A recent TUC report  found that almost half of women over 50 are in part-time work with average wages of less than £10,000.

The report argued that many of these women could only take part-time jobs because of their caring responsibilities which thus trapped them in low wage jobs.

The Labour Party set up a Commission on Older Women as part of its Policy Review.  It recently published its interim report calling for government-funded programmes targeted at helping older women back to work, for companies to conduct gender pay audits and for a public debate about whether parental leave could be shared with grandparents.

The government has committed itself to extending the right to request flexible working to all employees in June 2014.

The charities welcome this as an important first step, but believe that we should go further to encourage employers to promote and encourage flexibility in the workplace.

Flexible working can include a range of options, including working from home, doing flexitime or compressing hours, all of which can allow people to balance personal responsibilities with work.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director of Age UK said, “We know that many older women especially are finding it impossible to hold down a full time job at the same time as fulfilling their caring responsibilities.

“In the end, many have to stop employment altogether or take a poorly paid part-time job, where their skills are often wasted and their income plummets.

“That’s why we need ‘Flexible by Default’, so that everyone can work flexibly unless their employer can justify otherwise to harness the wasted potential of many older women - and indeed older men.”

Heléna Herklots, chief executive of Carers UK, said: “1 in 4 women in their 50s and 60s have caring responsibilities, many struggling to combine paid work with supporting ageing parents or an ill partner.

“Unless carers can access flexibility at work and reliable care services at home they are at risk of being forced to give up work entirely, with serious costs not just to their family finances but also to their employer and the economy.”

Currently, only parents with children under the age of 16 and those with formal caring responsibilities can request flexible working.

Story published on Women's Views on News, 15 April 2014.

A closer look at unpaid carers

Census figures show bulk of caring responsibility falls on women, especially those aged 50-64.

Figures released from the 2011 Census last week reveal that the majority of unpaid carers in England and Wales, 58 per cent, are women.

And 11.8 per cent of all women are carers, compared with 8.9 per cent of men.

Caring responsibilities increase with age - and so does the gender imbalance.

Nearly a quarter of women aged 50 to 64 are carers, compared with 17 per cent of men in the same age group.

Working women are more likely to be carers than those who do not work;  12.1 per cent of full time female workers and 16.1 per cent of part-timers in England were carers.

And this extra work takes its toll on their health.

Women in full-time work providing more than 50 hours unpaid care were almost three times more likely to report poor health than full-time female workers who are not carers.

Male carers in full-time work were only two and a half times more likely to report poor health.

According to Carers UK, the number of middle-aged female carers in the UK as a whole has risen by 13 per cent in the last 10 years and now totals 1.2 million.

This is a sharper increase than the total number of carers which has increased by 11 per cent to 6.5 million.

Carers UK estimates that the total cost to the economy of carers giving up work is £5.3 billion a year.

The charity also points to the increasing challenge for employers, as Census figures also show that 1 in 8 workers are juggling work with caring for older or disabled loved ones.

Heléna Herklots, chief executive of Carers UK, said: “Becoming a carer can turn your world upside-down and when that responsibility falls in middle age it can change your working and personal life irreversibly.

“Women who have struggled to juggle childcare and work are now also finding themselves caring for ageing parents - and sometimes also a seriously ill partner.

“Without the right support, women are forced to leave work, or reduce their hours at an age where it is a real challenge to re-enter the work force when caring comes to an end.

“This brings serious consequences for their incomes and pensions, as well as a wider cost to the UK economy."

Article published on the Women's Views on News website, May 23, 2013