Good enough for voluntary work, but not for payment or respect?

The value of older people’s contribution to society, via unpaid care, charitable and voluntary work has increased by almost £2 billion in the UK over the last 12 months, to a total of £26.8 billion, according to the new 2012 Retirement Nation report by financial services company MGM Advantage.

The report found that each year those approaching and in retirement give society on average 75 hours of charitable work at a value of £5.7 billion and 73 hours of voluntary community work at a value of £5.5 billion. Most significantly, they provide a massive 326 hours in free care for grandchildren, parents and other family members, saving the family economy £15.5 billion in the last year.

Yet despite this contribution, the majority of older people feel undervalued by society. Two-thirds (65%) feel they are treated badly by politicians, while four in ten (42%) feel that society treats them badly. A further third (34%) feel they are poorly portrayed by the media.

Commenting on these findings Aston Goodey, director of MGM Advantage, said: “It seems £27 billion’s worth of unpaid care, voluntary and charity appears to go unnoticed by society, politicians and the media, with millions of retirees experiencing a significant lack of respect.”

The implications of the withdrawal of this input would be huge for society as a whole, and fortunately is unlikely to happen. But taking such a massive contribution for granted is insulting. Is this just another case of what doesn’t cost isn’t valued? How should older people react?

For futher information see The Retirement Nation 2012 report www.retirementnation.co.uk

Is social entrepreneurship only for the young?

In an interesting article in the Guardian Madeleine Gabriel from the social entrepreneurship organisation UnLtd explores the reasons why older people are less likely to start this type of endeavour. The article is linked to the recent publication of UnLtd’s research report Golden Opportunities, Social Entrepreneurs in an ageing society.

She reveals that although over-50s comprise 44% of the UK adult population, they account for only 18% of UnLtd’s Award Winners, a finding which appears to be borne out by data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2009) which suggests that the over-55s are less likely to be involved in social entrepreneurship than most other age groups.

UnLtd believe that social entrepreneurship can give people a way to maintain economic and social activity into later life. The activity of being a social entrepreneur in itself has potential to help tackle some of the issues of an ageing society – over and above the social impact created by the work of these ventures.

Reasons for this low representation seem to be that, although voluntary activity is high amongst people aged over 50, there might be significant numbers of people in this age group who UnLtd would call social entrepreneurs but who wouldn’t recognise themselves as such.

Apparently, for many of the older individuals UnLtd interviewed, the language of social entrepreneurship “didn’t feel right”; they tended to associate the word ‘entrepreneur’ simply with making money. They felt “social entrepreneur” didn’t reflect their missions or their ventures, many of which were run on a voluntary basis.

Other barriers highlighted in the report were older people’s lack of understanding about social entrepreneurship, wariness about the credibility of UnLtd’s funding offer, and older people’s lack of confidence in their ability to take up the offer.

So – lack of understanding, lack of identification, lack of confidence or lack of knowledge? Probably all of these and more. Building on the language issue already identified, our own experience of social innovation organisations (plus limited informal feedback from others) reveals that many have a preoccupation with jargon and process at the expense of plain english and action.

There’s an unfortunate tendency to patronise older people by viewing them as a sector who need things doing to them or for them by people who know what’s good for them. Add to this a lack of understanding of the significant age and capability differentials in what is a 50 year “over 50” age span and it’s all quite irritating and offputting.

We’re not implying for a moment that UnLtd exhibits any of these shortcomings, but we have found them elsewhere. That said, the strength of the “social entrepreneurship” sector in the US as evidenced by the winners of the Purpose Prize (http://www.encore.org/prize) and other inspiring stories, adds weight to UnLtd’s argument that this activity seems to have a natural appeal for older people.

Ultimately more publicity, more role models and more workplace education about post-mainstream work options might help attract greater over 50s involvement. Or will it take much more than that?

https://socialenterprise.guardian.co.uk/en/articles/social-enterprise-network/2012/feb/08/older-social-entrepreneurs?CMP=

Over 55s: seeking skilled, paid work – which is useful, fulfilling and valued

A recent article in the New York Times featured the work of ReServe, an organisation I’ve come across before which merits ongoing attention.

ReServe is an innovative non-profit organisation that links people over 55 with meaningful second careers. ReServists are given responsibilities that allow them to use their skills, which doesn’t always happen with volunteering. Some ReServists use the same skills they always did – retired accountants, for example, are very popular; but most of the time, the ReServe career is something new. 

The pay is low – $10 an hour. But ReServe never uses the word volunteer; it’s work and the pay matters – on a number of levels. ReServe also requires organisations to pay because it ensures the work is valued.  

ReServe began in 2005, and now operates in Miami and Westchester in addition to New York City, with plans to develop elsewhere. According to the article, hundreds of retired professionals are currently on a waiting list to be matched with meaningful part-time jobs in schools, libraries, hospitals and other city agencies and nonprofits.

“The concept of retirement is fading,” said Mary S. Bleiberg, ReServe’s executive director.  “There is a steady increase in people over 65 going into or staying in the workforce.  People are realizing they’re going to be around a lot longer, and there’s a limited number of golf clubs they can swing.”

As a model for what is needed to address the nature of later life careers for a sector of the population ReServe appears to have much to offer. It is founded on the notion of skilled, paid work which at the same time is useful, fulfilling – and valued.

Intuitively one feels that enduring solutions for later life working will come from a proliferation of such initiatives rather than merely extending the timespan of existing career structures.

To access the article go to http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/in-a-second-career-working-to-make-a-difference/

6.1 million over 50s set to work past retirement age

According to retirement specialist LV=’s newly released Working Late Index, 28% of working over-50’s are planning on average to work past state retirement age for an extra six years, which based on today’s retirement age would see them retiring at age 71 for men and 66 for women. One in five over-50s (19%) said they expect to work for at least a decade past the current state retirement age.

Two thirds of those ‘working later’ apparently will do so because they can’t afford to retire.

The report goes on to state that one in five over-50s – equivalent to 4.3 million people – who had retired have since gone back into work. Of those who have gone back into work: 

• 11% returned in a part-time capacity, 6% into voluntary (unpaid) work and 3% back full-time
• 37% went back to work because they felt they were too young to retire
• 32% missed being part of the working environment
• For 30% it was financially-related: 20% said it was a necessity as their personal and/or state pension wasn’t enough to support them in their retirement, and one in ten (10%) needed to go back to work to help continue financially supporting their family

However, going back into employment after retirement has given some over-50s an opportunity to fulfil other ambitions. A fifth (19%) made a complete career change and 12% set up their own business. Many have chosen to go back to work in a role that requires fewer hours than before (27%), and 18% are doing a job that is less stressful than their previous job.

In terms of these findings this is an interesting study. However LV’s use of the phrase “state retirement age” isn’t helpful in a society in which we have now abolished mandatory retirement. Obviously they mean state pension age as they say “as the state retirement age increases to age 65 years for women in 2018, and to 66 for men and women in 2020”.

This wouldn’t matter except that it seems clear that the sooner we decouple the concept of retirement from that of drawing a pension the more helpful this will be for people in terms of understanding the options open to them in later life.

The loaves and fishes job market

Interesting news about a new service which enables organisations to sell the time of their staff.

Called StaffShare, http://www.staffshare.co.uk/home/index.html it allows organisations to register individuals, who could be under-utilised or at risk of redundancy, on a website offering their services on short- or medium-term secondment basis. Organisations interested in an employee, which will initially be restricted to charities and the voluntary sector, can then buy their services for the selected period through the website.

The scheme has been welcomed by the TUC with general secretary Brendan Barber commenting: “StaffShare is part of a new approach that is needed if we are to avoid the waste of talent and human tragedies that occur if companies rush prematurely into redundancies when conditions start to get tough. This will keep people in employment while allowing third sector organisations to draw on specialist expertise.”

StaffShare is a fully automated interactive system, which allows organisations to sell and buy the time of skilled professionals including, but not exclusive to Financial Controllers, HR Managers, Marketing Executives, IT Professionals, Web Designers and Grant Writers.

We think it’s a great idea and one that should be seized upon by all sectors in respect of all types and levels of jobs. It could, on a long-term basis, solve many of the problems of older workers and the gap which exists between our wants and needs for work (i.e. generally to work longer but on a more flexible basis) and those of employers (who want us, if at all, to work full-time and then retire – generally early).

But no doubt such a scheme would be beset with tax, pensions, health and safety and goodness knows what other bureaucratic issues which ultimately would strangle it in its infancy.

At the very least let’s hope this idea is only the start of a whole raft of recession inspired schemes about how to share out work and rewards more fairly and profitably for all. If this happened, and some were adopted, the recession could be ultimately a very good thing.