Baroness Sherlock
Main Page: Baroness Sherlock (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Sherlock's debates with the Cabinet Office
Out-of-work Benefits
Baroness Sherlock Excerpts(1 year, 6 months ago)
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Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)
I am very happy to look into it. Before I do so, maybe I can speak with the noble Baroness to get some more information to share with my colleagues in the department.
Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
My Lords, the Minister mentioned people with ill health. The group falling out of the labour market fastest are the over-50s, and the ONS has found that more than half of over-50s who have left the labour market since the pandemic have done so because of physical or mental ill-health. What is the Minister’s department doing to target over-50s who have left the labour market, who are much needed out there and who want to get back into work? Some of them are not technically unemployed; some are not even getting benefits. What are jobcentres doing about those people?
Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)
We have our programme for over-50s and our over-50s champions. If somebody over 50 is on a benefit, they will be engaged with a work coach, who will have to identify the barriers and put interventions in place to overcome them. People not involved in benefits will get a mid-life MOT and direction to Jobcentre Plus.