Don't lose your job if you are over 50.

Being unemployed and over 60 I must admit I was still somewhat taken back by the headline in the Mule

Prime Cymru warns: 'If you lose your job in your fifties you are statistically more likely to die that to find another job'
The report goes on to say ..

..... there are more than three times as many older people who are not in education, employment or training (Neet) and wants “equal measures” of support for the over-50s as younger jobseekers.It claims there are 214,000 jobless people aged between 50 and the state pension age in Wales while there are 62,000 younger jobseekers. The charity adds that more than 40% of unemployed men aged over fifty in Wales are still jobless after 12 months compared to 18% of young men; younger women are also twice as likely to find employment within a year than women over 50.Prime Cymru is concerned the “vast majority of programmes, projects and employability schemes are targeted at young people”. It states that 15% of people in Wales in their fifties have no formal qualifications – “at least twice the rate of any other age group.”It also argues that while in 2003 there were more than 90,000 people over fifty enrolled on part-time courses in Wales, by 2013 this figure had dropped to fewer than 48,000.

This has probably got worse since the change in sickness benefit and the movement of people off this into Jobseekers Allowance .

I recently been ill and was on Employment Support Allowance for about 9 months when I was sent to a Board which resulted me being classified as fir for work.

So I had to apply for Jobseeker allowance which resulted in me waiting in line on the phone only to have tp when connected to supply them with the information they already had.

Only three weeks later I was admitted to surgery for the removal of a Tumour from my pituitary gland that which had caused a relapse of the Acromegaly I had a 20 years ago.

On being discharged I decided that rather go through the rigmarole of signing on the sick I would continue signing on.

Unfortunately almost immediately afterI became very ill  I had to be readmitted to hospital and spent a further 8 days in their care.

So I now definitely had to claim ESA and was given a 6 week sick note by my GP

It took an age to get connected on the phone again and I had to start a new claim again given them the details they already had.

It took a month before I received any money. and if I didn.t have savings could have gone into serious debt.

Its worrying that I have to be actually certain that I m not going be ill again before rejoining Jobseekers Allowance because a system that ought to be simple is anything but, and seems designed to discourage anyone from claiming sickness benefit.or ESA as it is know.

So there you have it a man-over 60 unlikely to find a Job and who could be forced to seek non existent jobs even when to ill to take one up if by miracle offered one.