EVERY region in Britain has seen a rise in the number of economically inactive over-fifties, with the overall total soaring by a whopping 350,000, Labour warned today. 

The party will hold an opposition day debate in the Commons today to urge Tory ministers to adopt Labour’s plans to reform jobs support after an additional 11 per cent of older people were recorded as not in employment, education or training (Neet) between March 2020 and September 2022.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Ashworth is set to urge Downing Street to “localise employment support, open up jobcentres, target help to the over-fifties, provide specialist support for those with ill health and make sure that work pays.”