According to the "Huffington Post" British edition of the local time reported on October 16, the UK's severe cost of living crisis is forcing more and more retirees to return to work, their national pension has been unable to sustain life, must work to pay for increasingly high energy and food bills. However, finding a job is not easy for these elderly people, they have difficulty getting an interview, and some have even suffered from "age discrimination".
Screenshot of the report
Tony Moore, 78, a former truck driver, retired more than a decade ago. But Britain's energy, food and diesel prices have soared over the past few months, and the high cost of living has left him unable to cope. Moore, who was in his eighties, had to start looking for work again to earn a living.
"Finding a job made me very frustrated." Moore said, "I'm constantly being hit by recruitment agencies who don't look at my CV at all and give me the position assigned to me on the other side of the UK. I attend very few job interviews, but I do wonder if my age makes people think I'm going downhill. ”
Keith Grinsted, 69, said bluntly in an interview: "I won't give up my job unless I win the lottery." He said he couldn't make a living with Britain's state pension alone, let alone pay his sky-high rent.
"I'd rather spend my time working for charities than worrying about income." Grinstead said.
According to the report, the full pension of the British country is 185.15 pounds per week, and one in six people close to retirement age does not have a private pension to supplement. In an environment of economic uncertainty, the pound sterling exchange rate is volatile, and there are warnings that there will be a global recession in 2023. Many British people believe that these pensions are not enough to guarantee their livelihood.
Data from the UK's Office for National Statistics shows that the number of people over the age of 50 who are now working or looking for jobs over the age of 50 has increased by 116,000 in the past year compared to before the COVID-19 outbreak. In the past 12 months, Google Chrome's searches for "returning to work after retirement" have tripled.
78-year-old Tony Moore Source: The Huffington Post
Stuart Lewis, chief executive of Rest Less, a UK organisation that helps older people find employment, said: "The cost-of-living crisis seems to have accelerated some retirees' plans to return to work, consumer confidence is at record lows, and people are seeing their spending power decline every month."
Finding employment for these candidates over the age of 50 is not easy, and the most common difficulty is that they suffer from age discrimination. "We know that workers over the age of 50 receive less workplace training than younger employees, and once they lose their jobs, they may be unemployed for a long time." Lewis said.
Earlier this year, Timothy Crawley, 56, immigrated to the UK from South Africa in search of better job opportunities. He held a management position in his native South Africa, but could not find even a basic entry-level job in the UK, and he doubted whether he had been discriminated against.
"I started looking for a job but struggled because of my age. My age is a big issue for jobs I can find or jobs that people are willing to offer me positions. Crowley said.
Crowley said most recruiters respond to his job application by telling him he's not the "right person." "I used to work in a management position, and now when I apply for a small position like assistant or factory worker, I will be looked down upon, as if I am a little too qualified."
Tony Moore had a similar experience, saying in an interview: "For example, I received 16 emails from recruitment agencies in the last 12 hours and they sent me possible positions, but all of them didn't match my skills. I recently went to an interview for a chauffeur position, but when I went, they were actually hiring a carer. ”
Faced with unaffordable food prices, Crowley's current food is mainly soup and fruit, does not eat meat, and buys cheap things in supermarkets as much as possible; Moore also said he couldn't afford the high price of gasoline and was now walking as far as he could.
"I'm worried about other people." Keith Grinstead said, "A lot of people are going to have a tough winter and some are going to take extreme money-saving approaches that will jeopardize their health. ”
Keith Grinstead 69 Source: The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post reports that since the end of 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict have shaken the global economy, and the UK is suffering from the worst energy crisis in Western Europe, with household budgets across the country slashed dramatically. 93% of UK adults say their cost of living has increased compared to a year ago, with 77% "very" or "somewhat" worried about it.
Inflation in the UK is now at its highest level in 40 years, with the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) previously predicting that the UK economy will fall into recession by the end of 2022, with inflation soaring to 14% and weakness continuing into 2024.
It is worth mentioning that while the crisis of the cost of living in the UK is getting worse, the British government is in turmoil.
Britain's new Prime Minister Gilas Truss previously introduced a "mini-budget" plan to stimulate the economy and curb inflation, which met with strong opposition and triggered an earthquake in financial markets. The Tlas government then took a "180-degree turn" and announced that it was abandoning the plan to eliminate the maximum 45% income tax rate in the plan.
The incident has plunged the Tlas government into a crisis of governance, and there has even been "fierce infighting" among members of the Conservative Party's cabinet. Trawald made concessions again on the 14th, announcing the cancellation of the "plan to cancel the corporate tax increase from 19% to 25%" in the "mini budget" plan, and dismissed the finance minister Kvorten to retain the prime minister's position.
Trash attends a press conference on October 14
But Truss's plan to abandon the car and protect the marshal does not seem to have worked, and calls for her to step down are growing, and discussions within the British Conservative Party have begun to discuss "how to remove Truss", and a number of Conservative MPs have publicly called for her to step down.
According to a recent poll released by YouGov, Britain's opposition Labour Party has a 52% approval rating, far ahead of the ruling Conservative Party by 22%. Truss' approval rating has fallen below the lowest approval rating before former Prime Minister Johnson stepped down, with 53 per cent of respondents believing Truss should resign as prime minister of the United Kingdom.
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