EMMA SOAMES
EDITOR-AT-LARGE, SAGA MAGAZINE
PRESS RELEASE
 
June 1, 2010.

 

ABOLISH NATIONAL INSURANCE CONTRIBUTIONS FOR OLDER EMPLOYEES, SAYS OVER-50S CHAMPION.

Raising the default retirement age could backfire and generate massive benefits bills unless the new government convinces business to employ older workers.

“Increasing retirement age and bringing the change forward is all very laudable, but the real issue is getting employers to take on older workers,” said Emma Soames, editor-at-large of Saga Magazine.

“The answer is to abolish NI payments for employers taking on staff aged 60 and over. The risk of not taking action to incentivise employers is a bigger bank of older people qualifying for work over a longer period – and therefore more benefits.

“It is a fact that older people find it harder than other age groups to get back into work if they lose a job. Whichever way you look at it, an employer can find any number of quietly pre-conceived reasons to avoid employing an older person. The government is giving older people more opportunity to work longer when it abolishes the default retirement age, but hasn’t put enough in place to make employers receptive.

“An employer looks at cost, and the price of employing an older person can be made considerably more attractive with a simple elimination of NI payments.”

Ends

Further information:
Iain Macauley
im@pressrelations.co.uk
07788 978800
www.saga.co.uk

Emma Soames, editor-at-large, was editor of Saga Magazine from 2002-2008. Previously she edited the Telegraph Magazine for seven years and before that was editor of ES Magazine, Tatler and the Literary Review.