Down but Not Out

So, (to all you nice people in the blogoshphere who haven't the remotest idea who I am) I'm going to tell what's been happening to me lately.  I was made redundant from my legal secretary job in late November - A shock to be sure, but I've lived to tell the tale.  I don't think I'm being too boastful when I say that they didn't want to let me go but, times are hard and I - along with a dozen or so others - were "let go".  On the bright side, there was no bitterness from me and we all enjoyed a night out together at Christmas, and the nice comments on my Christmas cards showed how much people thought of me.

But, nice comments don't pay the mortgage do they?  So here I am at 63 (shh! don't mention my age to prospective employers) looking for another job in the deepest recession in living memory but, onwards and upwards as someone once said.

There are still some jobs out there and I have applied for other positions but I've not had the courtesy of a reply from any of them so, there is a little seed of doubt creeping into my mind vis-a-vis age discrimination (cue scary music).  I absolutely know I wasn't selected for redundancy because of my age so there are no problems there - in fact my previous employer has already told me that should the position change in 2011 they will re-employ me. But, could prospective employers be quietly discriminating against me?  My qualifications, experience and my references are all "good" so where am I going wrong?

According to the ACAS website http://www.acas.org.uk/ "It is unlawful to discriminate against workers because of age.  Employers should ensure they have policies in place which are designed to prevent discrimination in:
- recruitment and selection
- determining pay
- training and development
- selection for promotion
- discipline and grievances
- countering bullying and harassment."

Of course, its the first bullet point that concerns me at the present time.  It's not unlawful to request a candidate's date on an application form and most of them do request it so, is this where the discrimination begins?

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/ tells us that "-In order to successfully claim age discrimination in relation to recruitment, an applicant will need to show evidence that age could have been the reason that they did not get the job.  The employer will then have to prove that they did not discriminate against the applicant."   But this, of course, all takes time and we have to prove the discrimination and, at the end of the day, it does not get us a job so, fellow "older" job hunters what this space, I'll let you know how I get on and if I can discover any useful hints and tips I will,of course, pass them on.

Thought of the Day (from http://www.newretirement.com/ )

Retirement is the ugliest word in the language - Ernest Hemingway

Bye for now
S A L