National Inclusion Week | The double prejudice facing disabled older workers

Disabled older workers are almost twice as likely to experience negative treatment when applying for jobs or promotions than their peers without disabilities, new research reveals.

Data from the Centre for Ageing Better published in National Inclusion Week reveals that more than two in five (44%) Disabled people aged between 50 and 66 years old felt they had experienced negative treatment when applying for jobs or promotions in the past five years, compared to one in four (25%) non-disabled people of the same age, the newly published Supporting Disabled Older Workers project report details. 

Of all UK adults aged 50-66, more than two in three (69%) feel that older age is a disadvantage in the UK job market, the research project in partnership with The Policy Institute at King’s College London found. Three in four (75%) thought having a disability or a health condition put applicants at a disadvantage. 

Only around one in 20 (6%) UK adults 50-66 thought that having a disability or a health condition represented an advantage in the workplace while around one in ten (11%) thought being over 50 was an advantage.

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Previous analysis by the Centre for Ageing Better has shown that the UK has a 50% higher rate of economic inactivity due to illness among people both aged 50-64 and who want to work, compared to Germany.