If we are going to build a sustainable recovery we need to ensure that we do not waste the talents of some of our most experienced workers, but the latest employment figures reveal that unemployment amongst women over 50 has increased by 45 per cent since the general election.

And there is a gender effect, the number of out-of-work, older men has fallen by 13 per cent. You will not hear these figures from government ministers, because they choose to cite the overall increase in employment of older women, which is inevitable as the first generation of women who worked while bringing up children head towards their (rapidly retreating) pensions.

The commission on older women, set up in December 2012 and chaired by Harriet Harman, is looking for ways to overcome the barriers faced by older women in employment, in public life and when they care for loved ones. The commission has found that older women in their working lives are losing out in terms of jobs, pay, promotion and training.

The pay gap between men and women widens with age. On average, women in their 50s earn 18 per cent less than men, a wider pay gap then the average of 10 per cent.  Many older women work part-time, so that they can care for children, grandchildren or older relatives (or in many cases a combination of all these). For them the situation is worse. The Trades Union Congress’ recent ‘age immaterial’ report shows that the average salary for women over 50 working part-time is £10,000. So they will not benefit from tax changes as they earn below the tax threshold.

As one woman put it: ‘we older women are first in the queue for redundancy and last in the queue for a job.’ When older women, who have no entitlement to carer’s leave, give up work to care for a loved one they can rarely get their job back. When the crisis is over, employers are often unsympathetic to requests to return to work. We need leave for carers to stop this happening and to give rights to carers to return to their jobs after shorter periods of caring.

Some older women are being pushed out of work by use of capability assessments. Unions have reported this to be a specific problem in the teaching profession, but evidence received by the commission shows that this is happening in other occupations. And employment for older women is too often insecure – the TUC point out that use of zero-hours contracts is most prevalent among the under-25s and over-55s.

A large cohort of women now 59 or 60 years old have had very little time to prepare for a later state pension age. And because of inadequate pensions many women work long past the time they qualify. Yet two thirds of these women are on the lowest pay levels; in contrast two thirds of the men who work beyond pension age get top pay.

So it is essential that older women who have lost jobs and pensions are supported in their search for work if we are to avoid these women facing poverty in old age. But the work programme has found sustained employment for fewer than one in 10 of the women aged over 50 referred to it – the lowest success rate for any cohort on this £5bn government scheme.

In November 2013, the government confirmed that they would ‘appoint a business champion for older workers’. They still have not done. Older women are struggling with the cost of living, they are losing their jobs and their pensions and not getting support to stay in work and keep earning. These are workers with talent, experience and wisdom and they are the people most likely to provide the unpaid care for older relatives that this government assumes will be provided. Our economy needs the contribution of women over 50.

Labour has shown, through the commission for older women, that we understand the scale of the problem facing this influential group of voters. Our challenge now must be to deliver policies that will end the hardship they face.

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Fiona Mactaggart MP is secretary to the commission on older women

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