Today we learned that a government initiative is under way to try to help more unemployed over-50s back into work. The Minister for Employment, Esther McVey, is quoted as saying it could "add £50bn to the economy".
Oh whoopee.
Now I fully understand that there are some unfortunate people of my advanced age who are unemployed and are actively looking for work, but I would take issue with the figures quoted in the BBC article that there are 1.2 million over-50s who would like to work "given the right opportunity". For example, what exactly does that mean - "given the right opportunity"?
As a 54-year old, my thoughts are quite regularly (and in my view, quite rightly) focused on retirement. And not at my current state pension age of 66, but preferably long before that particular watershed arrives. Once retired, I am looking forward to spending my time doing the things that I want to do, rather than those that someone else wants me to do. Now in those circumstances, if "the right opportunity" presented itself - i.e. one which did not detract from my feeling that my time is my own; one where I could do something I love doing, but make some money from it all the same, then would I like to do it? Well, I don't know the answer to that at this moment, but even on that basis you would probably be able to class me among that aforementioned 1.2 million.
So is the idea behind this new initiative actually to make people happier, or is it to get them to carry on shouldering their corner of the national grindstone when they don't really need or want to and make some more money for the glorious economy?
Being a trifle cynical (who, me...?) I fear that the real answer is the latter.
During an all-too-brief (and voluntary) eight months out of the employment market ten years ago, I soon came to learn that the real currency of life is not money, but time. For some people, granted, time is a burden, and to those people, I sincerely wish you all the best in finding gainful employment so as to fill up your days and allow you to have the least possible time to spend relying on your own diversions and devices.
I am rather in the other camp. I have lots of projects that I would like to devote my time to, none of which involve clocking on and clocking off. I remember from that eight month break that one of the best feelings in the world, when you are concentrating on something that really takes your imagination, is that you can go to bed and relax in the knowledge that tomorrow is another day, exactly like the one you have just lived, and nothing will stop you taking up the thread in the morning (or the afternoon if you prefer) and carrying on. After 37 years of employment and the need to be somewhere far away from home doing something at a specific time most of the days in the week, that memory still lingers as a rare pleasure and one that I don't want anything (or anyone) to spoil for me when I get the chance to reacquaint myself with it.
One last statistic from the story today: A quarter of women and one in six men who reach state pension age have not worked since they were 55.
Fine, but that doesn't mean that they came under the heading of "unemployed" does it? Surely that number includes all the people who voluntarily retire earlier than at the state pension age?
In the end, maybe this story just comes down to electioneering and trying to win over the vote of the disenfranchised over 50s who really do want to get back to work? And of course, to get that extra £50 billion pounds out of an ailing economy...
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