Improving the quality of life for older ethnic minority women in the UK

PRIAE – the leading body working in the field of ageing and ethnicity in the UK and Europe – has created an important report concentrating on securing financial well-being for ethnic minority women over the age of 40 in Britain.

The report from PRIAE (Policy Research Institute on Ageing and Ethnicity)* forms the UK contribution to the European Commission-funded initiative Age+, designed to give an insight into the financial situation of ethnic minority women over the age of 40 in five European countries – the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria and Italy.

The initiative’s title, Age+ (Age+gender+ethnicity), points to older ethnic minority women experiencing triple inequalities on account of their ethnicity, age and gender.

PRIAE’s contribution gives an overview of the situation faced by ethnic minority women aged 40 and over in Britain, covering key issues such as living conditions, educational status, place in the labour market, levels of income and savings and pensions and benefits.

PRIAE’s Age+ report follows on from its detailed response this year to the Pension Commission’s First Report – referred to as the Turner Report. In its response, PRIAE outlined concerns about the report and the pensions system along with recommendations for improving the system – for ethnic minorities in general, but also with an assessment of the situation regarding ethnic minority women of both working and retirement age.

Founder and director of PRIAE, Naina Patel, who along with the charitable institute’s research officer, Peter Traynor, created the UK report for the Age+ initiative, commented: “Ethnic minority women over the age of 40 suffer low pay, poor working conditions and discrimination against career progression, all of which can lead to mid-life poverty continuing into old age.

“The Age+ project aims to highlight these issues and make an impact on European social policy so future generations of ethnic minority women can look forward to a decent quality of life on old age.”

Naina will also be a keynote speaker at the Age+ European Conference Poor, Poorer, Poorest? Older Migrant Women in Europe which takes place in Amsterdam from September 22-23.

In addition, Naina will be heading a workshop with project officer Samantha Turner, at the conference on Empowering BME Women.

Ends

September 2005

For further information, please contact Naina Patel/ Samantha Turner/Peter Traynor
Tel: +44 (0) 113 2855990, Fax: +44 (0) 113 2855999
Email: naina.patel@priae.org or peter.traynor@priae.org

Or Amanda Kirby at amanda.kirby@priae.org or amanda.kirby@whsmith.net
Tel: 01274 561253/0777 5903352

MENTION Oct 4th Conference ; CEMESME Training

*PRIAE is an independent registered charity working to improve pensions, employment, health, social care and housing, and quality of life for black and minority ethnic older people in the UK and across Europe. The Institute aims to influence national and European policy and increase and encourage good practice in work with black and minority ethnic elders. PRIAE does this through creating and leading on often ‘first of its kind projects’ in research, information, service developments, training and consultancy. PRIAE recently launched the largest European research in the area of health, ageing and ethnicity in ten countries called Minority Elderly Care (MEC) covering over 3,000 ethnic minority ethnic elders from some 26 ethnic groups and near 1,000 professionals and planners in health and social care with some 500 minority based organisations. The Institute’s CEMESME European project on employment and enterprise is also another major initiative aimed at generating useful research information and developments including training and materials for use in organisations, to help policymakers and entrepreneurs.