Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sandra Osborne and Steve Webb

Monday 8th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Sandra Osborne (Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) (Lab)]

17. What steps he plans to take to support older people experiencing long-term unemployment.

[The Minister for Pensions (Steve Webb)]

We have taken a range of steps. Most recently, in last week’s autumn statement, we announced a new pilot that will test how we support older claimants to help them return to work. It will benefit 3,000 older claimants whose age is a barrier to their finding work.

[Sandra Osborne]

Why does the Work programme fail the over-50s so badly, and why has it taken the Government more than three years even to begin to do anything about that?

[Steve Webb]

On the contrary, the labour market performance of older workers has been among the best during the last four years. During a period of slow economic growth, older workers actually did the best. Nevertheless, we are not complacent, hence the new pilots that I announced last week.