By David Williams
11 January 2010
Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman has vowed to fight discrimination against elderly people, promising new rights for carers and extra obligations on public services.
Her Equalities Bill, which enters the committee stage in the Lords today, aims to make it mandatory for bodies such as planning authorities to ‘protect and promote the needs of older people’.
If passed, it would also ban age discrimination in the provision of goods and services such as insurance and loans, and would give those caring for elderly relatives legal protection from discrimination at work.
Today Harman told a conference hosted by Age Concern and Help the Aged: ‘We still have to challenge the old-fashioned notion that defines you through your importance to the world of work, and that when you no longer work, sees you as “past it”.
‘This is important not just for those individuals concerned but for the economy as a whole. We have to banish the ageism in the workplace that costs an estimated… £31bn per year.’
She also attacked broadcasters for valuing older men more than older women.
An accompanying release from the Government Equalities Office emphasises the emergence of ‘the wellderly’ – healthy older people – and calls for the role they play in society to be more widely recognised.
11 January 2010
Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman has vowed to fight discrimination against elderly people, promising new rights for carers and extra obligations on public services.
Her Equalities Bill, which enters the committee stage in the Lords today, aims to make it mandatory for bodies such as planning authorities to ‘protect and promote the needs of older people’.
If passed, it would also ban age discrimination in the provision of goods and services such as insurance and loans, and would give those caring for elderly relatives legal protection from discrimination at work.
Today Harman told a conference hosted by Age Concern and Help the Aged: ‘We still have to challenge the old-fashioned notion that defines you through your importance to the world of work, and that when you no longer work, sees you as “past it”.
‘This is important not just for those individuals concerned but for the economy as a whole. We have to banish the ageism in the workplace that costs an estimated… £31bn per year.’
She also attacked broadcasters for valuing older men more than older women.
An accompanying release from the Government Equalities Office emphasises the emergence of ‘the wellderly’ – healthy older people – and calls for the role they play in society to be more widely recognised.
