Making Workplaces Work for Everyone: Closing the Gap Between Ambition and Action for Disabled Older Workers
A newly-published Ageing Better survey reveals an alarming gap between employers’ belief in the importance of inclusive employment practices and their implementation of them.
Rebecca Lines, our Research and Policy Manager, explains why a failure to close this gap between aspiration and practice has damaging consequences for our public services, the economy and employers themselves.
The UK stands at a critical moment in how we think about work, health and ageing. As longer working lives become the norm, it’s no longer a question of if workplaces need to adapt, but how quickly they can.
Our workforce is changing rapidly, but our workplaces are failing to keep up. More of us are managing long-term health conditions or impairments alongside our careers. Yet, people living with long-term health conditions and older Disabled workers are consistently being locked out, held back, or pushed out of the labour market early by barriers that are entirely preventable.
When an older Disabled worker or someone living with a long-term health condition is forced out of a job, prevented from progressing, or unable to secure a meaningful role in the first place, the consequences ripple far beyond the individual and impact our communities, businesses, and the economy.
If the labour market fails Disabled people and people with long-term health conditions, then the government picks up the tab. But the government is struggling to meet this growing cost, and is coming under pressure from some quarters to significantly reduce it.
This is one of the driving factors behind the recently published interim report from Timms Review which has been tasked with reforming the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) system.
The interim report highlights the role of wider system pressures in driving the demand and rising costs for PIP. Our data shows a direct link: employers are fundamentally failing to support Disabled people and those with long-term health conditions to get into work and to thrive there, meaning people are being prematurely pushed out of employment, driving up welfare costs. It is vital that older workers are central to the government’s wider reform of employment and ill-health and prioritised equally, if not more so, than fiscal constraints.
Last year, our co-produced Supporting Disabled Older Workers (SDOW) project looked at this challenge head-on. Driven by our Experts by Experience Steering Group, the project exposed what it really means to navigate a job market shaped by the dual disadvantages of ageism and ableism, resulting in a set of recommendations for change for both government and employers.
Our next step was to find out where employers stand, testing SDOW’s co-produced policy proposals with more than 1,000 HR leaders across the country.
The findings reveal a stark divide between corporate ambition and everyday practice. While three in four employers agree that these inclusive policies are vital, fewer than one in four have actually put them into practice. For instance, while 85% of HR leaders state that a clear, transparent process for managing workplace adjustments is important, only 25% actually have one in place.
Quick wins vs. systemic hurdles
The survey data gives us a clear roadmap of where employers can make rapid progress, and where the harder, structural roadblocks remain.
The 'quick wins'
Many of the most impactful changes are rated by HR leaders as both important and easy to do. Employers don't need to wait to act on these. They include putting details about available adjustments directly into job adverts, using "adjustment passports" so staff don't have to repeatedly justify their needs when managers change, and training managers to understand how age and health intersect – including practical guidance on managing the menopause at work.
The remote work roadblock
Offering remote work as a reasonable adjustment was consistently flagged as the hardest policy to implement across all sectors. Only around one in three employers found this easy. While some public or client-facing roles are naturally tied to a location, a refusal to adapt where flexibility is possible is cutting off a vital lifeline for older Disabled workers.
Sector divides
The private sector has the furthest to go, reporting lower policy adoption and lower perceived importance across the board compared to public sector employers. Clearly this is a significant concern when the private sector is overwhelmingly the majority employer in this country, impacting millions of workers. While employers in public administration and healthcare lead the way in setting up inclusive onboarding, consistency across the wider economy is lacking.
A call to the decision-makers: Put ageing on the agenda
Too often, the experience of older Disabled workers and people living with long-term health conditions is treated as a specialist issue rather than a mainstream workforce concern. In reality, it reflects the future of work for millions.
Neither employers nor individuals can fix a broken system in isolation. National government and combined authorities must step up to shift these structural constraints, using their policy and regional levers to support and incentivise businesses to act.
If we want to create an equitable labour market and a resilient workforce, decision-makers must put older Disabled workers, and their expertise of the systems that are currently failing them, at the heart of what comes next.
The prize is significant: higher participation, stronger businesses, and reduced long-term pressure on public services and public finances. Closing the gap between ambition and action is a test of whether we can build a modern economy that genuinely works for everyone.
