PEOPLE over the age of 50 with health conditions are more likely to be out of work than younger age groups, new research suggests.

Campaign group Centre for Ageing Better said older workers with health conditions faced years of financial uncertainty before retirement because of a drop in employment rates as they entered the final third of their working lives.

Reasons included “ageist assumptions” underestimating the value and capacity of older workers, difficulties accessing reasonable adjustments to stay in work and less effective employment support for older age groups, the report said.

Fewer than three in five people aged 50 to 65 with a long-standing health condition were employed, compared with almost three in four aged 35 to 49.

It added that Britain had a 50 per cent higher rate of economic inactivity due to illness among people aged 50 to 64 who wanted to work compared with Germany.

Britain also fared poorly in comparison with France and Italy.

The centre’s Dr Emily Andrews said: “In the decades prior to the pandemic, the UK’s employment growth was largely driven by increasing the participation of workers aged 50 and over.

“This trend has now stalled and for Labour to meet its growth mission and ambitions of an 80 per cent employment rate, their health and work initiatives will need to work for people in their fifties and sixties.

“To achieve this, we need an age-positive tone from this government in its communications and actions.

“It is clear that it is not 50-plus workers’ health that is holding this age group back from fulfilling their full potential, it is the failure of employment support and a significant proportion of employers in not giving them the opportunities to contribute fully to organisations and the economy.”