New research on the patterns of work for 50-69 year-olds, published by the by IFS and funded by the Centre for Ageing Better, shows that there are likely to be ‘significant challenges’ for this age group when it comes to finding a job after the end of the furlough scheme.

Employees over the age of 65 were 40% more likely to be furloughed in late April than those in their 40s at around 10% and among those unemployed in their late 50s, less than one in three returned to work over the course of the year, compared with about half of those unemployed in their mid-30s.