The good and the bad news

The good news. It is only a small thing in life, but I was delighted to have my first letter published in the FT, on the 50+ subject. My posting of the 8th Sept was the letter I sent in response to Christopher Caldwell's article about the Demos report (power of the boomers). The FT’s titled the letter 'Why target youth when age brings spending power' which is most inappropriate considering the contents of this post. This brings me onto the bad news.

Yesterday’s post was about the high level of unemployment and low incomes in parts of the 50+ age group. I have just finished reading two articles by Margaret Hughes (The Guardian) that develops this theme. Both of these are online so I will only give a brief summary.

‘When will they take us seriously?’ was published on the 6th Sept and was about the continuing problem of ageism in the workplace and the lack of knowledge about the forthcoming legislation. By the end of this year the government aims to have the new regulations in place, although they won't be put into practice until October 2006.
Let’s hope the regulations, and the accompanying increase in awareness, are successful since 40% of the over-50s, who are already delaying retirement are doing so for financial reasons.

Research conducted by the Future Foundation predicts that the number of people working past retirement age will rise by 63% by the year 2020. I would love to know where these jobs will come from or whether it will be as a substitution for younger workers.

The second article was about the plight of the single women in retirement (Sept 13th)

Two thirds of pensioners are women. Their average retirement income is just over half that of men. Not surprisingly, twice as many retired women as men are reliant on means-tested benefits. The article goes on to expand upon these facts and to describe how the government is (more accurately is not) responding to the situation.

It has never been my aim to use this blog as a campaigning mechanism but as marketers it is necessary (vital) to understand the reality of the life for the different segments of the over 50s. A lot of this data makes disturbing reading.